Gandhinagar, Jul 13 (IANS): The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has ruled that a hefty Rs 10,000 fine will be imposed on 'paan' shop owners if public spitting is noticed near their shops.

The AMC has also raised the fine on spitting in public and not wearing masks from Rs 200 to Rs 500. Both the decisions have been taken so as to continue the curbing of the Covid-19 outbreak in the city.

Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar announced the Rs 10,000 fine on spitting near paan shops. This decision was taken in a review meeting of steps being taken to curb the virus outbreak in Ahmedabad on Monday.

The review meeting was headed by Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Rajeev Kumar Gupta, where besides the AMC Commissioner, many other deputy municipal commissioners of different zones were present. Gupta has been designated as special officer for the Covid-19 situation in Ahmedabad.

The meeting also took the decision to raise the current fine of Rs 200 for not wearing masks and spitting in public, to Rs 500. The meeting observed that despite repeatedly warning people of the dangers of violations, many people continued ignoring the warnings.

Both decisions will be effective with immediate effect. The AMC has fined 1.72 lakh people so far. It has also closed down 94 production units just in the month of July.

Since, the past month or so, health and civic authorities in Ahmedabad have been successful in containing the outbreak to some extent. The numbers of daily positive cases have come down from 350 plus to around 150-170 now. The number of deaths has also gone down.