All Smoke, No Fine

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: If there is one law that is implemented only in breach rather than practice, it is the "Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
The law that came into force from May 1, 2004, prohibits, among other things, smoking in public places, including indoor workplaces, ban on direct and indirect advertising of tobacco products and also a ban on sale to minors. The Government of India legislation also stipulates that tobacco products cannot be sold within a radius of 100 yards of educational institutions but don't we commonly find kiosks that sell these stuff everywhere, even in the vicinity of schools!
In fact, the Andhra Pradesh government too enacted the Andhra Pradesh Prohibition of Smoking and Health Protection Act, 2002, imposing a ban on smoking in public places. It came into force from July 4, 2002.
Now, there is always an argument over what a "public place" is. The Supreme Court, way back in 2001, defined hospitals, health institutions, public offices, public transport (including railways), bus stops, court buildings, educational institutions, libraries and auditoriums as "public places." The state government included amusement centres, restaurants and hotels (inlcuding pubs), function halls, monuments and stadia, shops and shopping complexes and cinema halls too in the list of public places and classified them as "non-smoking" places under Section 3 of the AP Prohibition of Smoking and Health Protection Act, 2002.
"On any person who is reasonably believed to have committed an offence under this Act or the rules made thereunder, a sum not exceeding Rs 100 will be imposed as penalty for the first offence," the Act says. If caught a second time, the fine will be Rs 200 and subsequently Rs 500. Under a similar legislation in force in Kerala, a violator can be arrested without any warrant and the punishment includes six months' imprisonment or fine which might extend upto Rs 1000 or both.
Do pubs run without smokers or are cinema halls free from this smoking menace? The answer would be a clear 'No.' Then, what are the enforcing authorities doing? By the way, who these enforcing authorities actually are?
The state government has designated the managers\assistant managers of auditoriums, amusement centres, hotels, pubs, stadia and monuments as the enforcing authorities; for hospital buildings and health institutions the respective principal\superintendent\resident medical officer or the medical officer; for educational institutions it is the principal\head or chief executive concerned; for libraries the librarian\assistant librarian; for court buildings the registrar\assistant registrar of High Court, Sheristadar or head clerk of district court, head clerk of junior civil judge court; for public offices gazetted officers of the Central or state government or public sector undertakings.
If it is a public transport vehicle like a bus, the conductor or the driver are the designated persons to enforce the smoking ban and collect penalties. Now, don't we find RTC bus drivers or conductors themselves puffing inside the bus?
The state government appointed a high-level technical committee under the chairmanship of Director of Health to ensure effective implementation of the smoking ban. The committee includes officials from the Drug Control Administration, Crime Investigation Department, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Revenue Department, AP Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, Directorate of School Education, Municipal Administration, Higher Education Department and representatives of Non-Government Organisations. This committee meets once a month and reviews the implementation and submits a report to the High Court.
Statistics available with the Directorate of Health reveal that till the end of May this year only 1260 cases have been registered and a fine of Rs 1,09,250 collected from violators of smoking ban, from the time it came into force. Obviously, the police topped the list in enforcing the law by booking 505 cases and imposing a fine of Rs 62,300. The Drug Control Administration ranks second with 271 cases and Rs 25,000 in fine, IPM third with 458 cases and Rs 19,530 fine.
The revenue, higher education, transport, roads and buildings and school education departments drew a full blank in this regard.
The district-level committees are headed by the respective joint collectors as chairman and district medical and health officer as member-convenor. "To put it simply, no body cares about the law," a top official of the health department lamented, admitting that enforcement of smoking ban was proving "impractical."