The Maharashtra government has made spitting, smoking and consumption of tobacco products in public punishable offences in the state, which has reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country so far.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope made this announcement in a statement.

The first-time violators will have to pay Rs 1,000 fine and perform public service for one day, he said.

The second-time offenders will have to pay Rs 3,000 fine and perform public service for three days, the minister added.

'After that the punishment would be Rs 5000 fine and five days of public service,' he said.

Apart from this, as per various sections of the Bombay Police Act andthe Indian Penal Code (IPC), the punishment will range from six months to two years of jail or fine, Tope said in the statement.

Till Friday night, Maharashtra had recorded 62,228 coronavirus positive cases, while the total number of deaths till then was 2,098.

Karnataka govt bans spitting tobacco products

The Karnataka government has banned spitting of tobacco products and paan at public places, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state.

According to an order issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare on Friday, chewing and spitting tobacco or tobacco made products will be an offence under sections 188, 268, 269 and 270 of the IPC, relating to disobedience, public nuisance, negligent act causing the spread of dangerous diseases.

It will attract a jail term, it said.

The order also said chewing and spitting tobacco products was an offence under section 4(2)A of the Karnataka Epidemic Ordinance-2020.

The state government pointed out that coronavirus was spreading rapidly in the country and spitting tobacco products in public places can cause the disease to spread further.

The order cited governments in Bihar and Jharkhand making spitting of tobacco at public places an offence under the Epidemic Act.