Hyderabad: Despite being covered by the National Tobacco Control Program (NTCP), Hyderabad has failed to enforce anti-smoking drives in public places. Guntur, on the other hand, has been successful in banning smoking in public places and sale of tobacco products, especially near educational institutions. “A fine of Rs 100 to Rs 200 is imposed for smoking in public places while selling tobacco products to minors, and advertisements invite a fine of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000,” said Heena Shaik, consultant, AP State Tobacco Cell.
In two years (2011-2013), the Guntur anti-tobacco cell’s team collected Rs 42 lakh towards fines, while fines in densely populated Hyderabad did not even cross Rs 5 lakh. “The overall fine collected in the drive across the state is Rs 50 lakh with Guntur alone accounting for Rs 42 lakh,” said Geeta Prasadini, additional director of AP Public Health and Family Welfare Department (PHFWD). The anti-tobacco drive by the Guntur police was intensive and won superintendent of police, Guntur rural, J. Satyanarayana the Special Tobacco Control Champion State Award for the year 2012.
The Guntur rural police has booked more than 31,000 cases against violators and collected an amount of Rs 17 lakh. “Unlike the Guntur police, Hyderabad police was not keen to take up the drive as it was last in their priority list. Further, there were no special teams formed to enforce these laws. Food inspectors, additional staff besides police are required on special teams,” said a PHFWD official.
Lack of coordination between DCPs and police commissioners is said to be the reason. IT zones in the city are found to be the highest smoking zones. After the launch of the programme, the anti-tobacco drive in Hyderabad was conducted for barely a month. Experts say unless the problem is tackled on war footing, it will end up as a failure.
