Around nine years after Bengaluru became the first metro in India to ban smoking in public, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to follow suit.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said that steps are being taken to impose strict fines for smoking in public spaces, even in open air.
Chatterjee said that there are laws to impose the ban, which the KMC will soon implement.
“Very soon, smoking will be banned across Kolkata, even in open spaces,” he said.
While the mayor has turned the KMC headquarters in central Kolkata into a “No Smoking” zone, the civic body has set its goal on joining cities like Bengaluru and Chandigarh, along with Kerala, which declared itself smoke-free in 1999.
Chatterjee said that the KMC will take the help of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Indian Dental Association to put the ban in place, with support from the Kolkata Police.
Docs can lodge FIR
IMA secretary Santanu Sen said that on February 4, the association passed a resolution at its state council meeting, deciding that doctors would be able to lodge FIRs against those seen buying cigarettes from any shop within 100 meters of a school or hospital.
FIRs can also be lodged against sellers as well as minors buying cigarettes.
The KMC’s concern stems from the results of a 2014 survey, which revealed that Kolkata had the most number of smokers in a city in India.
