The Hans India: Hyderabad: Friday, September 22, 2017.
Stringent
laws, which were introduced to implement ban on smoking and the use of other
tobacco products in public places, has been thrown to winds in Telangana.
The
committees were formed to oversee the implementation of the Cigarettes and
Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade
and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA). But due
to lack of coordination between various departments, the number of cases
registered against the tobacco consumers in public places was only nominal in
the last three years.
As per the
Act, as many as 16 departments in the State have to work in coordination.
According to an estimation, 27 per cent of the people in the State are
cigarette smokers. Since the formation of Telangana State, around 13,000
persons were fined for smoking in public and about Rs 22 lakhs were collected as penal amount.
According to
section 6(B) of the Act, cigarettes should not be sold within 100 yards of
educational institutions. But till date, no cases have been booked nor anyone
fined for violation of the law.
The sources
said there was scarcity of human resources at State and districts levels. The
Food safety officers have to take part in the enforcement. Each district has a
committee with a nodal officer for this programme, including a psychologist and
a social worker. The psychologist has to counsel the addicted smokers on how to
quit and health hazards of smoking.
At state
level, there is no legal consultant to deal with the cases regarding the Act.
Dr Srinivas Ramaka, Cardiologist from Hanmakonda said he got information
through Right To Information Act (RTI) that under National Tobacco Control
Programme, around Rs 40 lakh funds for 2014-15 and 2015-16 were released from
Union government to Telangana but the funds were not utilised. S Ravinder,
Inspector, Punjagutta said they had booked around 30 cases on Hukka centres.
“There is no
specific enforcement to catch and fine on persons who were smoking publicly.
But, occasionally we impose fine on someone who was smoking in public,” he
said.
Dr Anusha,
Programme officer, National Tobacco Control Programme said training in 10
districts had been completed and in remaining 21 districts it would be taken up
shortly.
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