Summary:
Ranchi: Chief minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday evening issued directives to authorities to make two government secretariats — Project Building and Nepal House — tobacco-free zones. Two shops were also spotted on the both ends of Nepal House secretariat campus.“The shops opened at their usual time around 9am and a majority of their customers are government employees. We have already directed all the districts for converting community health centres, primary health centres and schools as tobacco-free zones by putting up signages with complaint numbers,” said Pathak.“Soon, we will be putting up a signage at Project Building and Nepal House to create awareness about them being tobacco-free zones besides taking measures to remove sale of such products within the campuses,” he added. There hasn’t been any crackdown on these shops as of now,” said Shankar Kumar, a worker involved in maintenance work at Nepal House.State nodal officer for tobacco control L R Pathak said they forwarded a proposal to the government last year for converting all government office premises into tobacco-free zones. However, he was quick to add that he was yet to receive any official communication on the recent announcement converting Nepal House and Project Building as tobacco-free zones.“To protect non-users from involuntary exposure to tobacco and the side effects, use of tobacco in public places have been as per Section 4 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulations of Trade and Commerce Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA), 2003..