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Stringent laws fail to stub out smoking
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.
Hyderabad: 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.
