Times of India: Bharuch: Friday, May 31, 2013.
State government's "Tobacco-free
Gujarat" campaign has remained a non-starter with the authorities failing
to implement the laws on ban on smoking in public places and consumption of
gutkha.
Sparsh, a Bharuch-based NGO that is working for
anti-tobacco awareness in Gujarat has gathered data with the help of Right to
Information (RTI) Act that says that in 2012 only 6,159 persons were fined a
sum of Rs 4.22 lakh from violators of anti-tobacco laws. Meanwhile, the state
spent Rs 3 crore in 2011-12 for the campaign against tobacco.
Ashish P Bhatt, secretary of Sparsh said,
"Every year the state is spending crores in the name of spreading
awareness against tobacco but the results are not encouraging at all. In 2012
not a single person was penalized in Bharuch, Dang, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar,
Kutch, Porbandar, Rajkot and Vadodara cities. The cases of cancer are on the
rise among both men and women."
He added that gutkha pouches are smartly being
sold in the name of flavoured pan masala. "Its quality and contents are
required to be checked on random basis. Gujarat is one of the biggest markets
of tobacco consumers. Only 30,940 violators have been fined since 2008 and a
sum of Rs 25.7 lakh collected from the violators. On the other hand, the amount
the government is spending on a tobacco-free Gujarat is more than 20 times of
the fine collected," said Bhatt.
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