Flouting rules during COVID-19 pandemic will cost a Bhilwara family dear as the administration has ordered that they pay Rs 6.26 lakh within three days. The family had taken permission for assembly of fifty guests at the wedding and invited 250 persons. No masks and sanitizers were used and social distancing was not followed. Subsequently 15 persons including the groom tested positive for the virus and one person died.
Bhilwara medical department had admitted 58 persons in facility and 15 positive patients in the hospital. An FIR had been filed against the family on June 22 for violating norms and causing threat to life of others, despite being aware of the threat.
In what is probably the first of its kind, District Collector Bhilwara on Saturday issued an order for the family deposit to deposit Rs 6,26,600 within next three days in the Chief Minister Relief Fund . The amount is the expense incurred for testing, treatment, quarantine, isolation ward, food accommodation and ambulance plus transport of these patients.
Ghasulal Rathi a resident of Bhadada Mohalla had taken assured the administration that there would be no more than 50 persons in the wedding of his son Rijul, scheduled to be held on 13 June. He had also undertaken to follow all security protocols like masks, sanitizers and social distancing. However the persons who attended the wedding did not practice social distancing or use masks, thereby causing wide spread of coronavirus. The first case came forth on June 19 and to date 15 have tested positive. At the same time there is also a possibility of more people testing positive.
The administration had filed an FIR against Rathi under Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases act 1957, National Disaster Management Act 2005 for violation of pandemic control guidelines despite being aware of the same.
The amount of Rs 6.26 lakh is to be paid by Ghasilal Rathi within the next three days. This is the amount incurred by the medical department for providing treatment to the 15 infected persons still admitted in hospital and 58 others who are still admitted in institutional facilities.
Rathi’s troubles will not be over after the payment of the said amount as he has an FIR registered against him and faces the possibility of being penalised.
