RTI shows last year only 78 persons booked for smoking in public
8 Feb, 2014In 2007, Chandigarh became India’s first smoke-free city by fully implementing government’s smoke-free laws and it made its stand clear on making the indoor places smokeless as well as prohibiting smoking in all public places.
In this regard, an application was filed with the Chandigarh Police under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get information on the challans issued in the city during last year for violation of the non-smoking rules in public places. The reply to the application shows that during 2013, only 78 persons were challaned for smoking in public areas. The reply shows that one person was fined in Manimajra police station area, three in sector 26 and 13 in industrial area while the highest number of offenders (61) was penalized in sector 19.
Through a separate RTI query, the applicant also found that though crores of rupees have been spent on building exclusive cycle tracks, no penalty is imposed on cycles and rickshaws for not adhering to the tracks.