Vendors selling cigarettes to minors will be jailed

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 18

Any vendor caught selling cigarettes to minor children will be put behind bars. An FIR will be registered against erring vendors under the Juvenile Justice Act. The Principal Secretary (Health) has also written to the Police Department in this regard.

Dr Mahinder Singh, nodal officer for Tobacco Control Cell, said earlier, vendors were let off on the payment of Rs 200 as fine. But now, an FIR will be registered against anybody caught selling tobacco products to minor children. The punishment includes jail for seven years or a fine up to Rs 1 lakh.

“Vendors have been asked not to sell loose cigarettes and they have also been instructed not to keep lighters and matchsticks with them. They have been asked to adopt this practice to check the sale of loose cigarettes. Vendors will not be hanging lighters or keeping matchsticks at their respective vends,” said Dr Mahinder Singh.

“We have given 10-15 days time to vendors to clear their old stock and sell new packets of cigarettes with pictorial warning on 80 per cent space. Our main motive behind this step is to check the sale of cigarettes and make people aware of disease caused by tobacco,” he said.

Appreciating the step of registering an FIR against those caught selling tobacco products to minor children, Sukhdev Singh, a senior citizen, said earlier, the amount of fine was just Rs 200 and anybody caught selling tobacco products to minor children was let off on payment of the meagre fine.