Raid on shops selling tobacco products; fine imposed

| | Bokaro
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Raid on shops selling tobacco products; fine imposed

Sunday, 08 September 2019 | PNS | Bokaro

In a move to curb tobacco menace in public places, officials of the District Health and Family Welfare Department, District Surveillance Office and District Tobacco Control Cell (DTCC), with the help of district police, raided shops which were selling tobacco products illegally by violating COTPA rules in Bokaro Steel City.

Twenty shop owners were slapped with a fine during a surprise raid, for selling tobacco products, informed said Md Aslam of DTCC.

Two teams of health department, narcotics, disaster management, district administration and police department officials conducted raids on 20 shops in City Center, Sector 4 for selling tobacco products. The shop owners were slapped with a fine of Rs 3,200, he said.

We raided various shops, hotels, bars and restaurants; it fined 12 shopkeepers found selling cigarettes and tobacco products in violation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) norms, said Aslam.

Shops selling cigarettes and tobacco in the city are now displaying signboards saying minors will not be sold tobacco products. The move comes close on the heels of raids conducted to ensure proper implementation of the COTPA (including Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution), he said.

Health department officials said instructions were given to shops to put out warnings on the health hazards due to tobacco products. They were also asked to put out advertisements saying that they do not sell tobacco products for those below 18 years.

Section 4 of the Act prohibits smoking in public places and section 6 prohibits the selling of tobacco products within a radius of 100 meters of educational institutions and also prohibits the selling of tobacco products to minors, said the official. The officials were also asked to book those found smoking in public places in accordance with Section 21 of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

“In case of smoking in public places, the offender as well as the person-in-charge of the place would be fined”, added Aslam. Besides others, Officer-in-charge Sector Police Station Binod Kumar, PK Srivastava, S Alam were present during the raids.

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