SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 9: Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar has declared all Lok Sabha polling booths campus of the state as ‘No Tobacco Zone’.
In this regard, the CEO has issued a letter to the returning officers (ROs) cum deputy commissioners of all 24 districts directing them to ensure the strict prohibition of not just smoking but also consumption of chewable tobacco products like a cigarette, Bidi, Paan Masala, Gutkha, Jarda and other in polling booths area.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Kumar, in his notification, has said that since the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already declared all government offices, schools, and educational institutions as no tobacco zone, the “Election Commission given letters of National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) state nodal officer and National Health Mission (NHM) declares all Lok Sabha booths of Jharkhand as ‘No Tobacco zone’, said the CEO.
Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act
Anybody who violates the ‘No Tobacco Zone’ order would be fined under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2006.
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Signage of no tobacco at each booth
Sources said in the wake of the CEO notification, NTCP state nodal officer Dr Ashwini Kumar has directed all district nodal officers and the district tobacco control cell to put up signage of no tobacco at each polling booth and make voters aware of the impact of tobacco use.
Dr Ashwini Kumar said that this notification of CEO Jharkhand will help in reducing tobacco use and making people aware about its bad impact.
Dhanbad 1st district in country to ban tobacco in 2014
According to Dipak Kumar Mishra, Executive Director of Socio-Economic and Education Development Society (SEEDS), and the Jharkhand government’s NTCP technical consultant, Dhanbad was the first district in the country which had declared all polling booths as ‘No Tobacco’ zone in the 2014 elections.
At the request of NTCP nodal officer Dr LR Pathak and SEEDS officers the then deputy commissioner (DC) Dhanbad Prashant Kumar took the step. In the 2019 elections at the request of the then principal secretary of health, Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni, the CEO issued a notification in the state first time.
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