Mangaluru: “In DK, work on enforcement and awareness has been completed up to 80 percent. However Mangaluru is yet to be covered in the drive,” the Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police S D Sharanappa told presspersons during his briefing of the police’s attempts to enforce the provisions of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA). He said that the police had taken up an intense awareness and enforcement drive in this regard from July 1 to August 28.
“The main intention of the drive is make people cautions about smoking. Every year over 10 lakh people die due to cancer led through tobacco usage, nevertheless the drive will at least help in reducing passive smokers”, he added.
Making a presentation, Sharanappa said that under the COTPA Act around Rs 4.5 lakhs were collected in the last three years alone. The amount has progressively gone up, he said.
He also said that a meeting had been held in Puttur subdivision and Bantwal subdivision with all the representatives of the tobacco industry – right from the stakeholders to the hotels and bars as well as the petty shops – everyone has been given the guidelines under the COTPA Act and asked to follow it.
“I have written to all the 96 government departments functioning in the district regarding the enforcement of the Act. The departments have also been asked to put up ‘No Smoking’ boards in office premises,” he added.
