The mobile courts operated by the police and district administrations across the country slap small fines for violation of the health guidelines and the law during the public movement amid the rise in the coronavirus prevalence, evidence shows.
These mobile courts never gave jail sentence for violations rather fined individuals between Tk 100 and Tk 700 for not wearing masks at public places and maximum Tk 10,000 for keeping shops open after 7:00pm.
The Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act 2018, however, has a provision for a maximum six-month jail term or Tk 1,00,000 fine or both for violating the health guidelines when any communicable disease is prevalent.
In a public announcement on May 30, the Directorate General of Health Services said that not using masks and not obeying other health guidelines in public would be treated as an offence under Section 24 of the act.
It asked the district administrations to enforce the provisions of the act.
Issuing three circulars since May 30, the Cabinet Division also asked people to use masks and maintain social distancing while going out of home.
It instructed the markets, bazars and shops to close after 7:00pm and imposed restriction on any public movement between 10:00pm and 05:00am without emergency.
The circular, made applicable from July 1 to August 3, also instructed the citizens to follow the health guidelines set by the DGHS and use masks at the offices and public transports.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s online news portal reads that on July 14 the mobile courts operated by its Ramna division realised Tk 1,400 from 12 people for not using masks while the Motijheel division the same day realised Tk 2,300 as fines from four shop owners for keeping their shops open after 7:00pm.
On the same day, the Tejgaon division collected Tk 8,150 fines from 13 individuals and three shop owners for violating the law and the guidelines while the Mirpur division fined six people and four shop owners Tk 50,600 that day.
On July 13, reads the news portal, mobile courts operated by the Ramna, Motijheel, Wari and Gulshan divisions realised Tk 47,350 from 22 individuals and six shops for disobeying the guidelines.
On July 11, DMP mobile courts realised Tk 17,850 fines from seven shops and 17 individuals.
DMP deputy commissioner Mohammad Walid Hossain claimed that Tk 62,95,660 was realised as fines from 1,267 individuals, 449 vehicles and 1,425 shops after COVID-19 broke out in the country in March.
‘Individuals are not punished with large fines and police personnel sometimes give them masks and compel them to wear those,’ he said.
The police headquarters has no central database on the fines realised by the police across the country, Assistant Inspector General of Police at the headquarters Md Sohel Rana said.
Dhaka’s additional district magistrate Vaskar Devnath Bappy said that mobile courts operated by the Dhaka district administration fined individuals maximum Tk 700 for not using masks and maximum Tk 2,000 for keeping shops open after 07:00pm.
Chattogram deputy commissioner Mohammad Ilias Hossain said that two to three mobile courts that operated these days in that city did not slap large fines as stipulated in the Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act 2018.
Bangladesh Medical Association general secretary Md Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury said that the low-income people might be punished with nominal sums of money but the rich and the youths from wealthy families, who unnecessarily wonder around breaching the health guidelines and smoke at public places, must be sent to jail and punished with the maximum fine.
‘We have to strictly enforce the law in the greater public interest as only making people use masks can reduce COVID-19 infections up to 90 per cent,’ he said.
Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, however, said that making people aware of the importance of complying with the health guidelines, instead of giving punishment, would be a better approach.
