Police spot violation of tobacco norms, raid shop

  

The UT Police along with officials of the National Tobacco Control Programme on Thursday confiscated over 260 packets of tobacco molasses of brand Afzal , 20 hookahs and water pipes and about 16 packets of hookah charcoal from a shop in Patel market, Sector 15, in violation of Section 5 of the COTPA (Control of Tobacco Products Act) wherein advertisements of cigarette brands were also displayed.
The raid was conducted on the basis of specific inputs. Dr Deepak Bakshi, nodal officer, National Tobacco Control Programme, Chandigarh, along with Sunil Chowdary, drug inspector, and a team of police officers — SI Ramesh Kumar, SI Ashok Kumar, Head Constable Major Singh and Constable Birender Singh — raided a booth and found a huge cache of tobacco molasses to be used in hookahs along with water pipes, hookahs, charcoal for hookahs.
The police team also found about 110 packets of cigarettes of brands like Pine and Black, Superslim, Marlboro, Rothmans packets and cigarettes without the mandatory pictorial warnings. Two other shops were also found displaying advertisements for cigarette brands and the same were removed by the police officers. Both the shops were booked for violations.

Later, the team took a round of Sector 24 market wherein they found three violations of Section 5 of COTPA, ie advertisements of cigarettes and tobacco products. The advertisement boards were removed.
At another shop, the team found some cigarette packets without the mandatory pictorial warnings. About 60 such packets were confiscated.
source:  Express news service : Chandigarh, Fri May 11 2012, 09:02 hrs