Police enforce ban, crack whip on public smokers

From now, if people are caught smoking in open spaces particularly in the school zones, the city police are likely to book them under The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Smoking and Spitting Act. The measure is being taken to curb smoking in public places, said the police.

Although ban on smoking in public places was introduced more than a decade ago, there have been complaints that the law was not enforced strictly and shops continued to sell tobacco products within 100-yard radius of school premises. While city police claimed that they conduct periodical checks for smoking in public, an officer said that there has been specific instruction from Commissioner AK Viswanathan to enforce the law strictly, specifically in school zones.

An officer said that hundreds of cases were registered last month for smoking in public and added that the drive would continue. Adyar Deputy Commissioner P Pakalavan said that at least 14 cases such cases were registered under his jurisdiction while 37 cases have been filed under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Copta) Act. 

While roads and parks were exempted from the banned places, the police said that smoking in school zones, even if it is on the road, it is an offence.  “Instead of going into the technicalities of what is a public space, the common understanding is that anything which is not private space is a public place. And if someone’s act affects another person’s liberty and rights, it is an offence.

So, smoking in a place where people visit even if it is a tea shop on a pavement is an offence as the rights of non-smokers, who also visit to the tea shop, is violated,” said the Deputy Commissioner. The officer added that except the designated smoking zones, smoking is banned everywhere, including public toilets. “The only place where non-smokers cannot complain is after entering a designated smoking zone,” he said. 

Ayanavaram Assistant Commissioner M Balamurugan said since smoking in public is a bailable offence — as per Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Smoking and Spitting Act — the offender would be booked and released on the station bail. “When the chargesheet is submitted before the magistrate, the offender would be asked to appear before the magistrate and pay a fine which may vary between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000. We are conducting awareness programmes in school to encourage students to stay away from tobacco products,” he said. Another assistant commissioner, however, said if a smoker does not cooperate to come to the police station, he could even be booked under Section 353 of IPC for preventing a government official discharging duty which is a non-bailable offence. “We have already booked a few people under this section,” said the Assistant Commissioner on the condition of anonymity.

Prem Anand Sinha, the Additional Commissioner (Chennai South), said that enforcing smoking ban is as part of the drive against sale of tobacco products to school and college students. “In the last 10 days, at least 45 ganja peddlers have been nabbed and the notorious ones will be detained under Goondas Act,” he said.

“Special teams have been formed for the surveillance and Joint Commissioners have been instructed to visit schools and conduct awareness programmes about negative effects of drugs,” said the officer. He also said that the initiative was taken after they found a rise in the number of ganja peddling targeting school students.

Sinha said that school students take to drugs owing to bad company and peer pressure and ganja peddlers find them as soft targets. “They later turn the students into their peddlers to supply drugs and woo them by promising drugs for free. The staff at rehabilitation centres say addiction to ganja is also difficult to get rid of and cannot be taken lightly,” he said.

 “Recently, we held a meeting with the managers of big hotels and instructed them to keep a check on sale of drugs in their premises,” the Additional Commissioner (Chennai South) said.