Guwahati: Polling booths for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Assam have been declared smoke-free by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state on Thursday.
The CEO’s office issued an instruction to all Deputy Commissioners/SDO (Civil)/DEOs in this regard asking them to declare all polling booths in the state as no smoking zones.
This was as per Section 4 of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003 which prohibits smoking in public places, the order said, adding since polling stations are public places, they come under the COTPA provisions.
The order instructed the officials to take appropriate action, including putting up signages as mandated by Section 4 of the COTPA in each polling station, declaring the area as ‘No Smoking Zone’. The Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA), a leading non-profit organisation working in the field of public health in Assam, had urged the CEO of the state to prohibit smoking in all polling booths during the three-phase Lok Sabha elections from April 7.
On April 1, a VHAA team had called upon the CEO-Assam requesting him to prohibit smoking in all polling booths. After this decision, Assam became the first state in the North East and third in the country to declare polling booths smoke-free after Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar.
“Issuance of a guideline or order by the CEO-Assam will not only help bring in awareness against smoking, but also protect people from the menace of secondary smoking, a major contributor of pulmonary diseases,” VHAA executive secretary Ruchira Neog had said. (PTI)
