14 thousand fined for violating tobacco Act in Raj

JAIPUR: Penalising for violation of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) in the state has picked up pace. In the first eight months of the year, 14,864 persons were fined for violation like smoking in public and violating pictorial warning norms on tobacco products.
The increase in challaning is a result of increase in numbers of district tobacco control cell (DTCC) in the state.Before, 2015-16, there were only two district with DTCC, one in Jaipur and another in Jhunjhunu.
Now, from 2015-16 onwards, the number of DTCC has increased from 2 to 17. "We are now implementing COTPA in more effective way. Centre has given its approval for setting up of DTCC in all the districts of the state. We will have 33 DTCC in each district and in Jaipur, we will have two DTCC. So, a total of 34 DTCC will be operational from January 1, 2017," Narendra Singh, state consultant of National Tobacco Control Programme said.
The DTCC are formed under National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP), which was launched by the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) in 2007-8 for creating awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use and about the tobacco control norms and for facilitation of effective implementation of the tobacco control laws.
With the increase in numbers of COTPA violators, the revenue has also increased. In 2011, the health department collected Rs0.43 lakh from challaning people for violation of COTPA. But, it now rose to Rs79.86lakh in 2016 so far. "We have collected highest ever revenue in 2016 (till August) in past few years by challaning COTPA violators. The violation including smoking in public, selling tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions, pictorial warning on pack is not as per COTPA provisions and also for advertising tobacco products," Singh said.
The districts, where DTCC is functional are Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Ajwar, Jaisalmer, Pali, Sirohi, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Kota, Jhalawar, Churu, Ganganagar, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, Ajmer and Tonk.
He said that in rest of the districts, the process of recruiting employees is in progress and it is most probably, all DTCC in all the districts will be functional from January next year.