Implementing tobacco control plan in true spirit: Kaul Singh

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 10

The Himachal Government was making all-out efforts to implement National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) launched by the Government of India in its true spirit, said state Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur while speaking during a conference organized on tobacco control at Bloomberg in New York today.

To achieve the goal of tobacco control as those envisaged under the NTCP, the state would build on progress achieved by expanding efforts in four key areas, a press note here today stated.

The new partnerships would be formed with other stakeholders to ensure that provisions of tobacco control law were upheld. The state had created a successful government - civil society partnerships to support innovative initiatives which protect youth from harm from getting exposed to tobacco use. The state government would support implementation of the law both through public education and rigorous enforcement.

The minister said the strategy of the state would be to develop tobacco-free generation. The educational institutions were particularly vulnerable to tactics of tobacco industry.

Kaul Singh Thakur said the government would continue to work on all aspects of controlling tobacco. Himachal Pradesh was declared smoke free in July 2013 and now efforts were being made to make Himachal the first fully-compliant state to all provisions of tobacco control law.

Kaul Singh Thakur said the state government had stepped up efforts to sustain the smoke-free status of the state and stronger enforcement of ban on tobacco advertisement and products without pack warnings. The state government had recently banned sale of single cigarette or bidi.

Kaul Singh Thakur said more than 21 per cent adult population of the state used some form of tobacco. There were more smokers, nearly 8,80,000 of them, in Himachal Pradesh, far more than tobacco chewers. These smokers expose several other people who do not use tobacco to harm of secondhand smoke. When the Government started tobacco control in earnest in Himachal Pradesh it was with the intent to protect non-smokers from the harms of tobacco smoke, the state Health Minister, Kaul Singh Thakur, added.