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Law Of ‘No Smoking’ In Ashtray
Posted by Pradeep Sadanapalli | July 10, 2008 | 7,963 views
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The law banning smoking in public places has literally gone up in smoke in the state. Habitual smokers light up in all the ‘public places’ mentioned in the act, but hardly anyone is hauled in.
The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, also bans direct and indirect advertisement of tobacco products and their sale to minors. These clauses are also constantly violated.
As per the law, that came into force from May 1, 2004, tobacco products should not be sold within 100 yards of educational institutions but there are dozens of cigarette kiosks near city schools.
Even before the Central law was passed, the state government had enacted the Andhra Pradesh Prohibition of Smoking and Health Protection Act, 2002, imposing a ban on smoking in public places. It came into force from July 4, 2002.
In 2001, the Supreme Court defined hospitals, health institutions, public offices, public transport (including railways), bus stops, court buildings, educational institutions, libraries and auditoriums as public places.
The state government included amusement centres, restaurants and hotels (including pubs), function halls, monuments and stadiums, shops, shopping complexes and cinema halls too in the list of public places and classified them as ‘nonsmoking’ spots.
Those who are caught smoking in any of these places will have to pay a fine of Rs 100 as penalty for the first offence. If caught a second time, the fine will be Rs 200 and subsequently Rs 500. However, despite all the elaborate definitions and umpteen clauses people coolly light up in all the aforementioned places.
So, what are the enforcing authorities doing? More particularly, who are these enforcing authorities?
In fact, cops don’t have to be present to take action on smokers. The state government has designated the managers\assistant managers of auditoriums, amusement centres, hotels, pubs, stadiums and monuments as the enforcing authorities.
Superintendents of hospitals, principals of colleges, registrar\assistant registrar of High Court, Sheristadar or head clerk of district court and gazetted officers of the Central or state government or public sector undertakings have all been authorised to take action on smokers. The conductor or driver of public transport vehicle can enforce the ban on smoking. But drivers or conductors themselves can be constantly seen smoking inside the bus.
The state government had appointed a high-level technical committee chaired by the health director to ensure effective implementation of the smoking ban. It includes officials from the Drug Control Administration, Crime Investigation Department, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Revenue Department, AP Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, Directorate of School Education, Municipal Administration, Higher Education Department and representatives of Non-Government Organisations and meets once a month and reviews the implementation and submit a report to the High Court.
However, since the law came into force, only 1,260 cases have been registered against smokers so far and a fine of Rs 1,09,250 collected from violators. Of this, 505 cases were booked by the police and 271 cases by the Drug Control Administration and 458 cases by IPM.
The statistics prove that revenue, higher education, transport, roads and buildings and school education departments have taken no action to prevent smoking in public places.
“To put it simply, nobody cares about the law,” said a top official of the health department. “The smoking ban is impractical.”
Author: D. SURYA
SOURCES:
Deccan Chronicle
Topics: Public Concerns, Govt Failures |
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