In a bid to curb the sale of harmful products like tobacco, cigarettes and liquor in public domain within urban vicinity, the attempts made by the Municipal Corporation and district administration seems feeble as the sale of such products is rampant in the Capital City.
At all major squares, the products immensely harmful to health are being sold under the nose of district administration and the civic body. Ironically, the Municipal Corporation earlier had formed an enforcement squad to wipe out all such vendors selling cigarettes and tobacco at public places where they cannot legally sell the products.
Notably, along with the district administration team, the Municipal Corporation had also decided to conduct regular raids to curtail the sale of tobacco, cigarettes and seize all such shops situated along schools, colleges and other such places.
Citing human resource crunch as a prime reason for failure to take any step in conducting drive against vendors selling tobacco and cigarettes in State Capital, RMC officer (Health), Dr. Kiran Kumari said that until staff crunch is not sorted out, the civic body cannot move an inch in wiping out tobacco sellers from major avenues.
“Though, we have formed the city enforcement team for different purposes but before starting up rigorous drive against the vendors selling tobacco, cigarettes at public places, we have to ensure our manpower strength for seizing shops and imposing penalty. Soon a drive will be conducted to wipe out all such product sellers,” she said.
As per the decision made by the administrative heads of civic body during the RMC Board meet, people found smoking at public places would be penalized by the city enforcement team members. All hoardings, banners and advertisements promoting intoxicant products will be immediately removed from the public places. Moreover, the Municipal Corporation officials have also instructed the city enforcement team to put up warning sign boards outside the offices and keep a tab on traders selling harmful staffs.
Following the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products (COTPA) 2003 guidelines, Ranchi district administration along with the other stakeholders formed a team and conducted raids at few tobacco shops situated along the roadside. Recently, Ranchi DC, Manoj Kumar had asked the officials to form a separate Tobacco Control Cell at every block to address the issue and to create awareness about the same yet no serious attempts have been made regarding this thus far.