The police and the Health Department have joined hands to launch anti-smoking squads at each district headquarters to challan them with a fine ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 200 under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Smoking Prohibition Act.
The Mandi and Kullu police have taken a lead in enforcing this Act and have penalised over 2,882 offenders since October last year till today. The police claim that they has collected Rs 3 lakh as fine from them and believe that a lot more needs to be done to aware people.
The Kullu police penalised 1,500 offenders and collected Rs 3 lakh fine in Kullu, Manali, and Bhuntar towns this year alone. Although police penalising offenders yielded good results in Mandi, Kullu and Manali, but smokers are continuing to smoke in public places as the awareness level remains poor. To enforce it stringently anti-smoking squads will be launched at the sub-divisional level.
