8,214 fined for smoking in public
NEWDELHI: The Delhi Police fined 8,214 people for smoking in public in just four days of a special drive in south and southeast Delhi areas such as Hauz Khas, New Friends Colony, Greater Kailash, Lajpat Nagar and Saket.
Teams from the 28 police stations in the two areas caught people smoking in public. Police said Rs 200 challans were issued in each case.
The drive was carried out on December 30 last year and January 3, 6 and 10.
Till 8 pm on Wednesday, the south district police had fined 2,755 violators while their southeast district counterparts had fined 5459 smokers. While the figures for south Delhi were final, the drive in southeast district was to go on till 10 pm, said DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal.
Biswal said that the drive was announced after public health activists had pointed it out to the senior police officers that while there was a law — Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products ACT(COPTA) — which made public smoking punishable with fine, the enforcement was not satisfactory.
“After this,we sent out teams for action on selected days,” said Biswal.
He added that this is the first such drive in recent times.
“11.3%smokers enjoy while other 88.7% non-smokers suffer passive smoking.exemplary work in enforcement of #COTPA 2 make change in public behaviour,” tweeted Romil Baaniya, Dcp(south), earlier in the day.
While Section 4 of COTPA prohibits smoking at public places. Sale of tobacco products to minors is prohibited by Section 6 of the Act.
“The four-day drive has helped in creating awareness and it will go on,” Baaniya said.