Anti-smoking law highly impractical: Civic body

However, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a different take on the issue and feels that the implementation of the law will be highly impractical.

Even though the anti-smoking laws exist in the country, the Government has struggled to enforce them. “Problem is that a vast area is to be covered. With the given infrastructure, it is not possible for the BMC’s health department to implement the law,” said Dr Jairaj Thanekar, executive health officer, BMC. If someone is caught smoking, the person would be made to pay a fine of Rs 200 as per the National Tobacco Control Act.

The law does not include parks, beaches and roads as these are open spaces. Even as doctors welcome the regulation, they admit that the quantum of the fine is less. “If one carefully interprets the law, even if the smoker gets away by paying a paltry amount Rs 200 at a hotel, hotel managers have to pay Rs 5,000 for each incident of smoking at the prohibited area of hotel or restaurant,” said Dr Shastri who was one of the key persons in framing the law.

The survey was conducted on a randomly selected sample of 1030 Indians aged between 15 and 64. They were interviewed in the month of August. “Eleven per cent of the total interviewed persons were smokers and majority were males. All were in favour of the law,” said Dr P C Gupta, director, Healis- Sekhsaria Institue for Public Health.

Mumbai along with Delhi and Chennai will also kick start a ‘smoke-free Mumbai’ campaign. Tata Memorial Hospital, the premier cancer institute in Asia, funded by Bloomberg Foundation has planned a number activities to make Mumbai smoke free as a run up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco and Health scheduled in March next year. “Apart from other campaigns, advertisements in newspapers and electronic media will be issued in public interest,” said Dr Surendra Shastri, professor and head, department of preventive oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital.

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