Curb fails to stop people from lighting up

TALL CLAIMS: Officials say Delhi has started enforcing the ban quite aggressively

On Day 2 of the smoking ban, it looked like the bark was worse than the bite. With only 80 people found smoking in public places, it doesn’t seem like the ban’s going to stop anyone from lighting up. At least not yet. So while the government’s eight mobile squads raided 50 public places and 289 buses to find 80 offenders, elsewhere, those who wanted to smoke, merrily went about doing so. But that’s not surprising considering all the confusion over the ban. No one knows who is authorised to take action and who does the challan money go to. Neither, it seems, does the government. The Centre however, felt that Delhi was leading the way in enforcing the ban. A senior ministry officials said, “Delhi has shown the way and has started to impose the ban quite aggressively. However, we received an unfortunate report how a poor man smoking a bidi at the railway station was fined Rs 200. Inspection teams must be sensitive and fine offenders on the basis of how much they can pay.” Meanwhile, Union health ministry officials said all states had imposed the ban successfully.