Odisha police have collected more than Rs one crore as fine from people violating Covid-19 guidelines in the last four days.

“Cumulatively, in four days, action has been taken against 44,846 violators of Covid protocols in the state and penal fines amounting to Rs 1,25,32,000 have been collected. Behave responsibly and follow the Covid-19 guidelines,” Odisha police tweeted on Sunday. The punitive action was taken against violators for not wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

The 10-day mask wearing drive was launched on Friday after chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked the people to put on masks to avoid a lock down. In order to enforce wearing masks in public places, the Odisha government has already enhanced the fine amount. The fine amount for not wearing the mask has been doubled from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for the first and second offence. For subsequent offences the violator has to pay Rs 5,000.

The state on Sunday reported 1,379 Covid-19 positive cases. With 339,603 recoveries, Odisha has now 7,979 active cases. The district administration of Ganjam, the home turf of Naveen that witnessed the highest number of Covid-19 cases last year because of large-scale return of migrant labourers to the district from other parts of the country, has asked government officials and teachers not to leave the district headquarters. The district administration has decided to register the names of all the migrants returning to the district.

Meanwhile, the state government has stepped up its campaign to contain the spread of Covid-19 and assigned senior IAS officers the task of monitoring the situation in different districts. They will act as observers and give their feedback to the district administration.