CEO for keeping all polling booths tobacco-free

“Since schools are the place where the polling stations will be placed, it is imperative that rule is enforced during the elections. Hence, the district election officers are requested to create ‘Tobacco Free Election Booths’ during the election,” Satyabrata Sahoo said in his recent order to the officials.

The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 would prohibit the sale of tobacco within a radius of 100 yards of any educational institution.

However, the officials of local bodies are perplexed over the implementation of the order as the many shops are still selling tobacco products.

“Most of the shops within 100 yards from the polling booths are selling tobacco. We must raid all the shops in the zone to implement the orders, as we do not have enough staff for this purpose,” a Greater Chennai Corporation official said.

Another Corporation official said that they were conducting raids at shops to seize banned plastic items and they would concentrate more near the polling booths. In Tamil Nadu, there are more than 67,000 polling booths and there are 3,754 polling booths in Chennai district alone.

Meanwhile, the officials had already started marking the radius of polling booths across the state and impose certain restrictions according to the radius on the polling day.