Two years after centre banned smoking in public places, authorities still passing the buck on which agency is supposed to implement it

Ban on smoking goes up in smoke

Two years after centre banned smoking in public places, authorities still passing the buck on which agency is supposed to implement it

Two years after the ban on smoking in public places was introduced in the country, its success remains questionable in the city as the implementing authorities are yet to figure out the government body that will enforce it.

u00a0OPEN DEFIANCE: A smoker at Swargate bus stand. Pic/Jignesh Mistry

While the Union Health Ministry pushed through Parliament the act to ban from October 2, 2008, smoking in public places such as multiplexes, pubs, discotheques, restaurants, bus stands and railway stations,
among others, those entrusted with implementing the ban say they have no clue about it.

The law states that the police, civic officials and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can fine people in public places, whereas the human resource department in offices and principals in colleges should implement it on their premises.While the FDA says it has collected fines from people smoking in public places, the police and the civic administration shrug off their share of the responsibility.

Cops, PMC cluless
Asked how much fine the health department had collected in two years, Dr R R Pardeshi, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health officer, said collecting fines was not their responsibility."The police are the implementing authority and not us. We don't collect fines for smoking in public places," he said.

A check with various police stations revealed that even after two years of the ban being in force, senior police officers were largely clueless about the role they had to play in implementing it.

"According to the Bombay Police Act, we collect fines from people smoking in government offices and buildings. But as far as hotels, pubs or malls are concerned, it is the FDA's responsibility," said Senior Police Inspector Rajkumar Rajendra Gaikwad of the Swargate police station.

The senior police inspector of Sahakar Nagar police station said he had no clue what the act said."I don't know if we are actually supposed to collect fines or not. All I know is we havent been doing it so far," said Senior Police Inspector Bajirao Gopal Bhosale.

The only authority that said it was implementing the ban also admitted it had not been able to do enough. According to data provided by the FDA, three people had been fined every two days for smoking in public places.

"In two years we have collected Rs 1.91 lakh in fines. We could have done better had we had more officers but given the shortage of staff and the burden of other responsibilities, this is what we could do," said C Salunkhe, assistant commissioner, FDA.