The initiative has been taken by the Delhi Police in association with an NGO, Sambandh Health Foundation to make the Capital tobacco-free zone
Looks like "No smoking" in public areas is being taken very seriously by the Delhi Police as they challaned 20,761 people for smoking in public places this year. The number of challans in 2017 was just 10,074.
Not just this, senior officials in the Central district also took action under Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act against two pan shops in Anand Parbat area and Patel Nagar for selling tobacco products to minors. The parents living in the area had given complaints to the police about pan shops selling tobacco products to the minors. The police then identified the pan shops and booked them under the JJ Act.
The initiative has been taken by the Delhi Police in association with an NGO, Sambandh Health Foundation to make the Capital tobacco-free zone.
Last year, the exercise began in February 2017 and till December 31, 10,074 persons were challaned. The process initially began slowly but picked up the pace in the last four months leading to challaning around 20,761 persons till March 2018.
The North-East district, which had challaned 92 persons last year, challaned 679 persons this year. On the other hand, the East district, which had challaned 523 persons last year, only had 39 as the number.
In 2017, in the Central district, only 198 people were challaned, however, this year, 1,426 persons were challaned. Same was the case with Shahdara district, which challaned 2,312 persons this year, in comparison to 39 last year.
Districts like South, South-East and North are on top of the list with all three collectively contributing to 9,250 challans this year, in comparison to 6,837 challans that they had contributed to the total tally last year.
People smoking in parks, bus stands, colonies and randomly on the road were booked under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, (COTPA).
P Kamraj, Special Commissioner of Police, Law and Order (South) said," Police officials were first trained and sensitised on COTPA. Thereafter, we started taking action against people caught smoking in public places or selling tobacco within 100 yards of an educational institute,"
As per a study conducted by Global Adult Tobacco Survey,"Delhi has a tobacco prevalence of 17.8%, and annually more than 10,000 deaths are attributable to tobacco in the city. Further, 81 Delhi children initiate tobacco usage per day.
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