Even as the Centre had banned the selling of tobacco products within a 100 metre-limit of educational institutions, the government authority fails to keep tab on the offenders.
Rules are meant only to be broken” is an old adage. Petty shops selling tobacco products appear to strictly adhere to this adage, even as the Centre had banned the selling of tobacco products within a 100 metre-limit of educational institutions as part of the Anti-Tobacco Act since December 1, 2004. Metrolife checked out the vicinity of a few schools and colleges here and the results were pretty shocking.
It is not as if those selling the products are unaware of the rule. If it were so, they would not be doing it on the sly like this petty shop in Yelahanka, located within 15 feet of the compound which houses an elite school and college.
College students casually walk into this shabby thatched shop in Yelahanka and knowingly walk up to a closed aluminium container where cigarettes are concealed and coolly pick them up. As if to record some evidence of their nicotine habits, a long notebook in the shop has a written record of the amount many students owe to the shop!
The impact on the school students who walk past this shop everyday is definitely not going to be a positive one. The irony is that there is a board which has these words in bold on the compound wall: No Smoking near the school Zone.
Violators everywhere
The phenomenon is neither confined to elite educational institutions nor far-flung places. The Seshadripuram pre-University College on Magadi road has a hawker selling pan and cigarettes within 20 feet of the institution, the Telugu Higher Primary School in Vimanapura has a bigger, permanent shop in the road across the school, the Sophia High School has a couple of hawkers selling gutka and pan outside, the Lourde High School in Cottonpet also had the petty seller around, the list is unending...
In its notification issued in 2004, the Centre’s health department put the onus on school principals, to ensure that the ban is implemented effectively. Besides school/college authorities, the government had also authorised a police officer (not below the rank of a sub-inspector) to seize shops situated near campuses selling tobacco products. A fine of Rs 1,000 and a jail-term was the punishment the offender had to face.
Whose responsibility?
Metrolife had a tough time figuring out which government authority in the City was keeping tab on the offenders. Nobody in the State Education department seems to be aware of how this problem is to be tackled. A top education official (name withheld on request) said, “We have taken efforts to curb sale of soft drinks and prevent usage of mobile phones in campuses.” Director of Secondary Education Chidre Shankaraiah Swamy said, “The Commissioner would be the right person to take any decision on it.”
The Commissioner for Public Instruction G Kumar Naik said, “If any activity violates the law then it is upto the police to take action in this connection. The authority that issues licences is also responsible for it. “
The Shops and Establishments department washed their hands off it. A top official said that they were not responsible for the prevalence of such shops.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Bangalore City, Gopal B Hosur, said, “The police have not received any directive asking them to take action in this connection. We have not been authorised to take any action even in the recent ban regarding smoking in public places.” The State and Central Excise department said it did not fall under their purview. A top official of the Commercial Taxes department said their role ended with collecting taxes, regardless of whether the establishments were legal or illegal ones.
