No instructions from ministry on smoking ban – P’pang DO
KOTA KINABALU: Penampang will cooperate with the Sabah Health Department during the transitional period of the national smoking ban implementation whilst awaiting for the State Cabinet’s verdict on the matter, said Penampang District Officer (DO) Robert Stidi.
“I was made to understand by an officer from the (Penampang District) Health Office that for the next six months, the (federal) law is there and gazetted. They will only remind or educate the public, right now, in all the eateries in the Penampang area,” Stidi told The Borneo Post.
“I was also informed that for the next six months there will be no compound (issued).
“Of course, a lot of shop (operators) here are going through the transition. They are abiding, that is the feedback I got,” he shared.
He clarified that the state Local Government and Housing Ministry had not issued any formal or black and white instructions regarding the smoking ban, which had been deferred by the Sabah government for now, to the council.
Stidi said the enforcement of the smoking ban was under the jurisdiction of the department and not under the council.
However, he stressed that the council fully supported and would continue to collaborate with the department on all matters including the smoking ban implementation.
“We cooperate with the Health Department in anything. In terms of warning, yes, we can also help them to warn but not compound because it’s not under our jurisdiction,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted here yesterday.
“If there is an eatery which the Health Department wants to shut down or anything, then maybe it can be discussed with us but it has not yet been implemented.
“We are also waiting for the decision of the cabinet. But since this is a federal law that has also been gazetted to include all (eatery) premises nationwide, the Health Department will be enforcing this because they have the power. We do not have the law to compound them but since our council has a health division, we can help deliver the Health Department’s instructions or briefing to the shop (operators),” he elaborated.
Stidi said the council would also forward the complaints made by the public regarding people smoking in the premises, for example, to the Health Department once the dust had settled down on the matter of smoking ban in Sabah.