Will someone stub the menace out?

Schools are supposed to inform of any violation of the ban on smoking in the 100-yard radius of their premises, but authorities say they hardly receive any complaints

City schools seem to be unaware of State Anti-Tobacco cell's direction of hanging a no smoking board on the front gates and do not object to shops selling tobacco within 100 yards of the premises. "Schools all across the city are supposed to display the board and make sure there are no shops within 100 yards of the school premise. School heads are supposed to inform authorities if shops near the school are found selling cigarettes," said S Prakash, Member Secretary, Karnataka State Anti-Tobacoo Cell.


The law: Educational departments should make sure that schools display
a board of the tobacco ban at the entrance. Pic/Priyanjali Ghose

He added that samples of such display boards are sent to schools all across the state and they need to follow it irrespective of which boards they belong. However, most city schools seem to be totally unaware of any such rule.

What board?
Anand, headmaster, St Xaviers Boys School said that they had received a circular two years ago from the education department stating that smoking is prohibited within the school premise but the school has not received any instructions recently. "We make sure that shops around don't sell tobacco by informing authorities. We also maintain that neither students nor teachers smoke in the school. So why do we need a board?" said Anand.

'Not our job'
Schools such as Frank Anthony Public School, National Public School (Indiranagar), St Joseph's for Boys and Seshadripuram High School have shops bang opposite them selling cigarettes. "There is a hotel right opposite the lane. How are we to control that? The BBMP gives the licence," said Shantha Chandra, Principal, National Public School.

Shyamala Narayanaswamy, headmistress, Seshadripuram High School was of the same opinion. "We can only make sure that our students don't buy those products. But whether there should be a paan shop or not is not under our purview," she said. Authorities from Frank Anthony Public School were unavailable for comment.

BBMP should act
Kumar Naik, secretary, Primary and Secondary Education said that he was not aware of any such display board. " Why do we need a board? Schools can get in touch with authorities if they find such shops. But enforcement is BBMP's responsibility."

However, a BBMP officialu00a0 said that the lack of funds deters them to employ officialsu00a0 to control the existence of these shops. "It is a criminal offence to have such shops nearu00a0 schools. Anybody complaining first needs to go to the city police," said the official.