The Telangana Police registered as many as 5,500 cases against those who were not wearing masks in Hyderabad.
In just two months, May and June, over 5,000 people were registered under Section 51(b) of the Disaster Management Act, during the pandemic Novel Coronavirus.
According to the police, to identify violators of the ‘Mask On’ rule, artificial intelligence was roped in to make surveillance cameras track down those not wearing masks and alert mobile patrols in the local area to trace such persons.
Apart from ensuring that they wore masks, the Hyderabad Police also imposed a fine of Rs. 1,000.
While nearly 3,000 cases were booked in the Rachakonda police commissionerate limits, the rest were booked in the Cyberabad jurisdiction. The use of computer vision and deep-learning techniques linked to surveillance cameras and AI to track down Mask On rule violations was launched on May 8, first in Cyberabad, Hyderabad and Rachakonda and subsequently extended across the State.
After identifying violators in a particular area, the staff at the Command and Control Centre would pass on information to either Rakshak or Blue Colt police patrol teams, which would then track down the person.
A senior official said, “Citizens who got challans for violations tend to change their behaviour and start following rules. They are realising that masks are for their own personal safety.”
A special team was also deployed for keeping a track for traffic rule violators.
Meanwhile, Telangana has a total of 25,733 cases of the Novel Coronavirus. Out of the total, 10,646 are active cases, 14,781 are recovered/discharged cases and 306 deceased.
Stay tuned for further updates.