Jamshedpur, March 14:The district administration has stepped up efforts to make the district tobacco-free. The administration has tightened enforcement of tobacco control laws in the district giving special focus on how to protect children and adolescents from the adverse impact of tobacco use.
Taking a step further, a one day orientation workshop was organised under Tobacco Control Programme at Collectorate Auditorium, Jamshedpur. On this occasion, Additional Deputy Commissioner Jaideep Tigga, Director DRDA Saurabh Sinha, SDM Dhalbhum Piyush Sinha, District Public Relations Officer Rohit Kumar, Dr. Mrityunjay Dhawadia from Health Department, representative of State Government’s technical support organisation ‘Seeds’ Rimple Jha , DCPO Dr. Chanchal Kumari and others were present.
Special discussion was held on how to effectively implement the COTPA-2003 Act in the district so that people are aware of not using tobacco products. Also, the members of the three-tier flying squad and the Tobacco Control Coordination Committee were oriented regarding the legal action to be taken under various sections of the COTPA-2003 Act.
The representative of the Socio Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), the technical support organisation of the state government for tobacco control, discussed various sections of COTPA-2003 under the tobacco control program being jointly run by the state government and SEEDS in all the 24 districts of the state. Explained in detail about. The participants were given detailed information regarding the steps to be taken to ban tobacco related products etc.
SDO Dhalbhum said that consumption of tobacco not only affects health but also causes economic loss. We need to make joint efforts to make this campaign successful so that we can get rid of youth and drug addicts. He also appealed to the enlightened citizens of the district to make people aware at their level and said that along with the action at the administrative level, the intellectual class of the society also needs to motivate and make aware the tobacco users to quit it. . Instructing the three-tier flying squad to take effective action, said that running the tobacco control program in the form of a campaign can yield very good results. Cooperation is expected to make the tobacco control program successful at all levels.
“The district administration will start more awareness and capacity-building exercises among the people and sellers to make them aware of the threats it possesses. More focus will be given to the vulnerable sections, that is, students at the high and higher secondary school, college and university level, when they are more likely to take on the habit of smoking or consuming smokeless tobacco. The steps will be taken by involving NGOs, media, religious institutions and other stakeholders to ensure better participation,” said an official.