Governor Surjit Singh Barnala will soon initiate a campaign to ensure that Chennai becomes smoke free. This campaign comes as a part of the anti-smoking drive. 86 villages in the state will also be declared smoke free.

Dr. S Elango, Director of Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH), appealed to heads of different municipalities in Chennai to safeguard children from the harmful effects of smoking. Elango was speaking to heads of municipalities at a workshop on the effective implementation of the Cigarettes and Tobacco Control

Elango evinced that to ensure that Chennai becomes smoke free, the DPH will strictly enforce Control of Tobacco Products Act (COPTA) that bans smoking in public places.

He said, “The health department has been granted Rs 4.5 crore from the Bloomberg Global initiative to reduce tobacco use”. This will be used to help the department in battling the problem of smoking.

The DPH plans on acquiring vehicles that will carry out raids and identify violators of tobacco laws.

Since the implementation of the ban on smoking in October 2008, the health department has accrued revenue of Rs 19.15 lakh from fines. Elango stated that 17,250 people were fined for breaching smoking laws.

Now, the Central Government has allowed anti-tobacco programmes to be included in the National Rural Health Mission. This has boosted anti-tobacco activities in the country.