BHUBANESWAR: After failing miserably to enforce ban on manufacture, sale and use of tobacco since 2013, the State Government on Thursday asked the departments concerned to strictly implement the laws regulating consumption, production, supply and distribution of tobacco products.
Chairing a meeting of the State-level coordination committee for implementation of tobacco control programme, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy directed for constitution of a working group under the chairmanship of Home Secretary with representatives from key departments to monitor activities under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act.
As the law, known as COTPA, prohibits sale of tobacco and gutkha within a radius of 100 yards of educational institutions, the Chief Secretary asked the authorities to remove existing shops selling such products. Shops which are regulated under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 but selling tobacco products should be identified and strict action taken against them.
Vendors selling tobacco products are required to display health and prohibitory disclaimer on their shops with mandatory depiction of specified pictorial warnings on all packs. However, most of the outlets in the State defy the regulation.
With increased taxation on cigarettes, people in the habit of smoking are shifting to chewing tobacco. Around 81 per cent of the people consuming tobacco are using smokeless tobacco even after the ban was imposed in 2013.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011 imposed a ban on food products containing tobacco or nicotine.