No masks, pay fine, say Telangana police

Hyderabad: The state police department has mooted the idea of enforcing fines for violating the law of not wearing face mask. The DGP, Mahender Reddy, on Friday tweeted that, AI-based face mask violation enforcement is being rolled out by TS police by leveraging computer vision and deep learning technique being implemented on surveillance CCTVs across the cities in the state.

He further added, "It will be a first of its kind in India and shall be enabled shortly across the three Commissionerates of the city."

An official from the department on condition of anonymity noted, "It's true that the police department is coming up with the idea of levying fines on citizens not wearing masks. In order to do this, the department will use the AI technology and if someone is found to be not wearing the face masks, then his vehicle number will be highlighted and a challan will be issued to the person."

"So going further, it will become very important for a person to wear a face mask along with helmet to avoid the fine amount and this step has been taken in view of the ongoing pandemic," added the official.