A press conference was organized by Tobacco Free West Bengal Campaign to urge the Government of West Bengal to take necessary actions on the enforcement of COTPA 2003 to make Kolkata healthy and green.

Tapan Dasgupta, Saibal Banerjee, T. P. Ghosh and Dr M Ariff graced the occasion.

The Government of West Bengal has put a complete ban on the manufacture, storage, distribution and sell of gutka and pan masala under the Food Dafety Act of Government of India. The step was a massive step towards a Tobacco Free state.

The assembled guests at the press conference highlighted on the fact that healthcare facilities needed to be declared as Tobacco Free Healthcare Facilities.

Smoking, especially of the passive type has also found to be of a major problem for the common people. The violation of COTPA 2003 needs to be taken care of and offenders need to be issued challans so that smoking can be prohibited and care can be taken of the health of the people. Moreover the consumption of tobacco by younger generation is alarming and if strict measures are not taken, the situation will go out of hand.

With the help of this initiative, we hope that tobacco consumption can be curbed and the health of the people gets better.

Priyanka Dutta