Telangana: TGANB plans crackdown on sale of cigarettes to minors

To ensure strict enforcement of COTPA, JJ Act at police station level across the State

Hyderabad: The Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) is now focusing on curbing the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors.

The bureau with the aim of achieving 100 per cent ban on the sale of the noxious products to minors is creating awareness about the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003 among the people including the police and at the same time enforcing the laws and registering cases.

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In India, the sale of tobacco products to minors (under 18) is prohibited and considered a punishable offense, under Section 6 of the COTPA Act. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, further reinforces the prohibition against giving tobacco products to children, except on the order of a medical practitioner. Under the JJ Act selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors will attract a jail term of up to seven years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

“We are now enforcing the law in coordination with the local police units. In coming days along with awareness about both the laws, we will be enforcing these laws and arresting the violators,” said a senior official of the TGANB.

The sale of tobacco products is also banned within 100 yards of any educational institution. The TGANB plans to see that the COTPA and the JJ Act at the police station level are enforced strictly. “If it happens, the children will not move towards ganja and other drugs. In the initial stage itself we can prevent them from becoming tobacco addicts,” explained the official.

The TGANB, on information passed on from public, conducted decoy operations in the city and registered two cases against kirana shop owners for selling cigarettes to minor boys.

Next academic year, the TGANB will seek help of anti-drug committees in schools and local volunteers in the colonies to prevent sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to minors. “We already have a helpline and people can inform us directly about any shopkeeper selling cigarettes to minors,” added the official.