Smoking a 'sin' in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, July 15: Smoking is a sin in the 'City Beautiful', as the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh today became the country's first smoke-free city. Smoking is a sin, but drinking beer or whisky is welcome in the city as the administration earns huge revenues through auction of liquor vends every year. The number of liquor vends in the last two years have increased four times and in Sector-22 alone there are 13 liquor vends.

So if an outsider visits Chandigarh, he must remember, 'a puff is a sin, but a peg is acceptable'.

To make sure that the anti-smoking rules are followed, the UT Administration has authorised food inspectors, drug inspectors and police officers of the rank of sub inspector or above to compound any offence committed under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and regulation of Trade and Commerce Production Supply and Distribution) Act 2003.

This means that these officials can now accept the fine or the compounding fee directly from the violators.

Besides, the Administration has constituted a Chandigarh Tobacco Control Cell (CTCC) to act as a focal point for all tobacco-related incidents that violate provisions of the Act.

UT Home-cum-Health Secretary Krishna Mohan would be the chairperson of the cell, which will include the IG Chandigarh Police, Deputy Comissioner, directors of public instructions, MC Commissioner, Head of Tobacco Cessation Clinic, PGI, chairperson of Burning Brain Society (NGO), Kumar Abhimanyu, Jagwinder Patial, Jagdish Singh Sarpal and A P S Shergill.

The anti smoking cell would cooridinate and direct all tobacco control related activities in the UT on day-to-day basis. It would also monitor and ascertain that guidelines mandated for Chandigarh as 'Tobacco Free City' are observed and would take corrective action as and when required. The cell would also bring any observed aberration to the notice of the competent authorites for necessary action, besides performing the function of managing coordinating, superintending, allocating, facilitating, monitoring and proper utilisation of financial and other resources allocated for tobacco control activities or projects.

Meanwhile, the the police, in a major anti-smoking drive, conducted raids at various clubs and discotheques in the city late last night. The raids were conducted by a team of more than 100 police personnel led by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dinesh Bhatt.

The team fined four persons for smoking in public places, while two persons were challaned for smoking in public at Chandigarh Club and two girls were challaned for smoking in a discotheque.

Sukhna lake, bus stands and hotels run by CITCO are displaying banners bearing the anti-smoking messages, in addition to the demarcation of no-smoking zones. Anyone found smoking in public or in a no-smoking zone of a building could invite a heavy fine.

UNI