The District Rural Health officials have conducted raids on 277 shops across the district. The shops which were selling tobacco products without licence were fined. The total fine collected from the raid comes to `4,000. The raid was conducted across 84 panchayats. Shops near school premises and other places were raided and the officials have strictly asked the shop owners to put up boards near the shops stating the purchase of tobacco products by children below 18 years were banned.
The raids was led by District Rural Health Officer P N Sreenivasan. Health supervisors, health inspectors, junior health inspectors also partook in the raid. District Medical Officer Haseena Mohammed said raids in shops across the district will continue in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a special squad under the District Collector conducted inspections at open markets and hotels in Thripunithura on Tuesday. The inspection was held at 29 open markets and nine hotels in the area. Stale food from four hotels were discovered. Also, four open markets were fined for not displaying the price boards as per the law. Squad head V Ramachandran said the inspection reports will be submitted to District Collector P I Sheikh Pareeth soon. Ramachandran also said that the inspections will be carried out in the coming days. The inspections will be extended to other parts of the district. The inspections were made to ensure that the public were not being cheated with fake prices of essential commodities. ENS