MANOJ SINHA
Ramgarh, June 9: A District Tobacco Control Coordinating Committee meeting was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Ramgarh Deputy Commissioner Madhavi Mishra. During the meet, a smoking-free declaration ceremony was organized.
In the ceremony, the smoking-free declaration was signed by all the senior officers of the district and an appeal was made by the DC to keep the entire district smoke/tobacco-free.
Ramgarh Civil Surgeon Dr Prabhat Kumar while welcoming the participants said that due to the successful implementation of the COTPA Act passed by the Indian Parliament in the year 2003, great success has been achieved in tobacco control in the country.
He said that smoking is a dangerous habit when there are small children, and the situation becomes even more critical. Very good results have been obtained by running the Tobacco Control Program in the form of a campaign. There has been cooperation in making the tobacco control program successful at every level. The central government, state government, all government offices, educational institutions, social institutions and media world have got a lot of cooperation in running this campaign.
Executive Director of Socio Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), the technical partner organization of the State Government for tobacco control, Deepak Mishra told through a PowerPoint presentation that the tobacco control program is being run by the State Government in all 24 districts.
To know the status of compliance with various sections of Control Act COTPA-2003, a compliance survey is conducted by the State Health Mission from time to time by an independent agency, and based on that compliance report, section 4 of COTPA-2003 (On smoking in public places).
The districts are declared smoking-free as per the better status of compliance with the ban. Six districts of the state namely Ranchi, Bokaro, Seraikela-Kharsawan, East Singhbhum, Dhanbad and Khunti have been declared smoking free districts. Ramgarh was declared as the seventh district of the state as a smoking-free district today by Ramgarh DC.
Presiding over the program, Deputy Commissioner Madhavi Mishra appealed to all the residents of the district and said, “After smoking, now we have to start a campaign to make our district a tobacco-free district so that our future generations can be saved from the ill effects of tobacco.”
The DC directed all the members of the three-tier guerilla squad formed in the district to conduct regular raids by removing all the shopkeepers selling tobacco products located within 100 yards of educational institutions.
“I am very happy to declare Ramgarh as a smoking-free district,” she added, saying that more efforts will have to be made to make this campaign successful by going among the common people of the society and making them aware of the ill effects of tobacco consumption. The work will have to be done to put complete control on it. People have to be motivated and made aware not to consume tobacco.
