Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam has said, the government is thinking of enforcing tough punishment for not wearing masks.
“Directions have been given to make the punishment tougher if fines are not enough,” the cabinet secretary said at a briefing following the weekly cabinet meeting at the secretariat on Monday afternoon.
When asked whether the punishment would be imprisonment, the cabinet secretary replied: “Let's see. Maybe the fine can be increased. Now the fine is Tk500 to Tk1,000. It can be increased to Tk5,000. We want to go for stronger punishment.”
The meeting was virtually chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from Ganabhaban while other ministers and secretaries participated from the secretariat.
Khandker Anwarul Islam said: “The prime minister today said, 'do more publicity, force people to use masks. If you don't use a mask, no matter how many vaccines and medicines arrive, protection will not work.”
He said: "Once again, the issue of wearing masks was discussed very seriously in the cabinet meeting.”
About fines he said: "Divisional commissioners said yesterday [Sunday] that they have been fining people heavily for the past seven days. Thousands of people were also fined yesterday for not wearing masks.”
Regarding the new directives, cabinet secretary also said: “We told them to see another week. If people are not aware of fines, motivate them more, otherwise, people will have to face stronger punishments.”
He also mentioned that mobile courts were conducted in 37 places in Dhaka on Sunday.
