SHILLONG: The Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills has issued order prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to any individual below the age of 18.
Shops within a hundred yards of any educational institution within the district have also been instructed to not sell tobacco products and shall display a notice with the warning ‘Sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to a person under the age of eighteen years is strictly prohibited and is a punishable offence’.
Any person found in violation of Section 6 shall be guilty of offences under this Act and shall be punished accordingly along with the imposition of fines and other prescribed penalties.
The order has been passed following reports that vendors, stalls and other shopkeepers have been selling cigarettes and tobacco products to minors in market places and within the proximity of educational institutions which is in complete violation of Section 6 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.