Madan Mohan Mittal, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab today formally declared HOSHIARPUR & KAPURTHALA DISTRICTS as 'TOBACCO SMOKE FREE'. A decision to this effect was taken on the occasion of Prakash Utsav of Sri Guru GranthSahib Ji. Health Minister told that school of Public Health PGIMER, Chandigarh was entrusted the task of conducting a ‘compliance survey and opinion poll’ to verify the compliance of COTPA Act, 2003 (Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products Act). Dr. Sonu Goel, Assistant Professor, SPH, PGIMER, Chandigarh has in his report concluded that absence of active smoking and presence of signage’s was observed in more than 96.4% of public places in district Kapurthala and 91.3% in district Hoshiarpur. Mittal said that this study paved the way for officially declaring HOSHIARPUR & KAPURTHALA DISTRICTS 'Smoke Free' districts of Punjab.
Smt.Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Punjab congratulated State Tobacco Control Cell Punjab and District Administration of these districts who made consistent efforts in this regard. She said that district Ferozepur, Fazilka,Faridkot, Tarn-Taran & Jalandhar will be declared Tobacco Smoke Free in the next phase of making Punjab a Tobacco Smoke Free State.Dr.Ashok Nayyar, Director Health Services Punjab added that earlier DistrictsAjitgarh(Mohali), Mansa, Amritsar, Roopnagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur,Sangrur, Bathinda & Sri Muktsar Sahib had been already declared as ‘Tobacco Smoke Free'. Dr. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, State Program Officer, Tobacco Control Cell Punjab said that consistent efforts are being made to make entire Punjab 'Tobacco Smoke Free' in a phased manner. It is very important to protect all people from harmful effects of the tobacco smoke inadvertantly inhaled by the non smokers.