Guwahati, July 11 (PTI): Assam police have started fining people for smoking in public places, selling tobacco products to minors and advertising nicotine-based items, in violation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.
As part of the drive, which was taken up by the police stations since yesterday, shop owners were also fined for selling cigarette packets with inadequate display of warnings and setting up stalls for selling tobacco products within 100 yards of schools.
Dr Ramandeep Kaur, DCP East Guwahati, said that enforcing the Act would go a long way in reducing prevalence of tobacco use among people.
Assam has more than one crore tobacco users of whom 13.3 lakh are cigarette users, 18.8 lakh bidi users and 91 lakh smokeless tobacco users, SHF sources said. Pointing out that over INR 540 crore is spent annually for treatment of tobacco-related diseases in Assam for persons aged between 35 years and 69 years, the SHF sources said the prevalence of tobacco has gone up from 39.3 per cent in 2010 to 48.2 per cent in 2017.
Dr Ashok Das, a cancer surgeon at B Barooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) here and patron of Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV) said, “The enforcement of COPTA by the police in Guwahati is commendable.” As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2017 in Assam, 32.9 per cent of people above 15 years, currently smoke or use smokeless tobacco.
