Udupi: Efforts were on to declare Udupi as a “public smoking-free district” by July-end, informed SP Annamalai, recently at an event marked to observe Anti-Drugs day.
The district has taken effective steps in implementing the Control of Tobacco Products Act, as a result, the number of people smoking in public had come down considerably, the SP said. Chikkamagaluru, Kolar and Gadag districts had been declared as “public smoking-free districts”, he added.
We are working towards it and it may be possible to declare Udupi as a ‘Drug-abuse free’ district in a year or two, we are taking in collaboration auto rickshaw drivers as well as various other educators who can create awareness to the public.
The SP stated Punjab now had the highest cases of drug abuse. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were in the middle group as far as drug abuse was concerned, he added.
Sunita Naik, president of Udupi Taluk Panchayat, Pratap Shetty, president of Taluk Janajagriti Samiti, Ramesh Kanchan and Narsimha Nayak, municipal councillors, Malati Dinesh, Project Officer of Udupi taluk unit of SKDRDP, were present along with a large audience of the young.
