Smoking fine may go up in Delhi11 Jan 2008

Smoking fine may go up in Delhi11 Jan 2008, 0332 hrs IST,Abantika Ghosh,TNN

NEW DELHI: Next time you light up inside an autorickshaw, on the road or even inside your own car, beware. In a bid to achieve the target of making all public places in Delhi smoke free by 2010, the state health department is planning to increase the fine for smoking in public places to Rs 500 from the existing Rs 100. The department also recently gave all gazetted officer the power to fine people who are found smoking in public places. Efforts are underway to give similar power to more officials. The department has eight anti-smoking squads and about 400-odd people at its disposal to enforce the ban on smoking in public places but for a city with a population of 1.7 crore, the number of people fined for smoking in public places - a common enough sight in the city - has not been very high. According to the government estimates, prevalence of smoking is 45% in men and 7% in women and is growing at the rate of 5-7% per year. The city has some 51 lakh smokers. Of this, during 2007, there were only 7,000 people, including 100 women, who were fined for the offence during raids in 13,000 public places. Of these, 12 people were challaned and produced in front of a magistrate for not being able to pay the fine on the spot. The earlier picture of enforcement was even more dismal, with an average of just 4,000 fines per year. The figure, officials say, has risen only recently. Health minister Yoganand Shastri said: "We are very serious about enforcing the ban by 2010 when the city will see a huge incursion of foreign tourists. Globally, no big city allows smoking in public places and if we are planning to become a global city, it is imperative that we do so too. The fine amount is too less to act as a real deterrent but it is specified in the Central Act. We are looking at putting together and passing a legislation and making it Rs 500." The Central Tobacco Control Act was enacted in 2003 and Delhi’s own legislation - the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers’ Health Protection Act, 1996 - was one of the first legislations to be brought into effect by any state government in the country. Under the Acts, there is prohibition of smoking in places of "public work or use", and in public service vehicles apart from prohibition on cigarette advertisements and storage, sale and distribution of cigarettes in the vicinity of educational institutions.