Punjab clamping down on sales of loose cigarettes

The government of the Indian state of Punjab said on Tuesday that it was taking measures to prevent the sale of loose cigarettes and other tobacco items because they did not carry the required pictorial health warning messages, according to a dnaindia.com story.

A government spokesperson said all the deputy commissioners (district heads) had been directed to ensure strict implementation of section seven of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, which required the placing of pictorial warnings on tobacco products.

The deputy commissioners have been asked to keep a close watch on sales of single tobacco products near educational institutions, colleges, coaching institutes, schools, factories and offices.

At the same time, they seem to have been instructed to ensure that no tobacco products of any kind are being sold within 100 yards of ‘these institutions’, but it is possible that the reference here is to the various educational institutes and not to factories and offices.

And just to make sure that the laws are followed; the watchers will be watched. A special district-level task force has been set up to conduct surprise raids in all of the Punjab’s districts to ensure strict compliance with the orders.

Meanwhile, the government spokesperson said that nicotine in the form of electronic cigarette liquids had been declared ‘illegal’, but it wasn’t clear whether the illegality, which cannot attach to the product since no sanctions can be applied against a product, referenced the manufacture of these products, their sale, their possession, their consumption, or all of these actions.