Ban violated! University students affected by the illegal sale of
Cigarette and Tobacco Products!
AZARA,
(Guwahati), 16 August – “An increased availability and sale of cigarette and
tobacco products within the close premises of Assam Don Bosco University is affecting
the discipline and health of the students by luring them into tobacco addiction”,
say concerned students. Some 1,400 students could fall prey to the tobacco lure
if the authorities do not step in.
“It should be banned completely,
it is a concern of not just the students in ADBU, but the common people around
it as well!” say Don Boco Institute of Social Sciences students.
It is 10 years since
the COPTA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco
Products Act- Section 6), enacted the Anti -Tobacco Act whereby “the sale of
any form of cigarette or tobacco products within 100 yards of all educational
institutions is banned.”
“Yet the sale of
tobacco continues to be aggressively sold around the university campus,” says
MSW 3rd semester student demanding speedy action from authorities
concerned.
The problem is not only
of ADBU alone, but many reputed colleges in Guwahati have small and big shops
in their periphery selling tobacco and related products.
A fine up to Rs.200/-
could be imposed for selling tobacco products within a radius of 100 yards of
an educational institution, but who cares of it? Where are the authorities
concerned?
The ADBU has two big
sign boards kept at the gate banning the sale of tobacco products, written in
Assamese and English.
However, on every side
of the university there are small and big shops that continue to sell
cigarettes and other tobacco products .
The main violator of
the tobacco acts is the shop situated just near the back gate of the university
and right in front of the boy’s hostel is flourishing with an increasing sale
of all the forms of tobacco and cigarette products.
We could see the students run to the
particular shop even during the interval time to consume tobacco or to have a
smoke.
The most interesting part of it is that both
the sale and the consumption are done publically without any sign of fear or
privacy.https://www.facebook.com/
