Who's kicking the butt before CWG?

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's dream of making Delhi smoke-free before CWG is likely to remain unfulfilled

Another Games plan bites the dust. At least that seems to be the likely fate of Sheila Dikshit's vision of turning the Capital into a smoke-free city before the commencement of CWG 2010.


Huff and puff: A foreigner, visiting Connaught Place in New Delhi with
his friend on Tuesday, lights up as a local watches on. 1.5 million people
die of tobacco usage globally every year. PIC/Arjun Panwar

"Delhi will be a smoke-free city ahead of the Commonwealth Games to be held in October and a community-based pilot project will make people aware of the ill-effects of tobacco usage," had said the Chief Minister on World Tobacco Day.

But as per sources, with just 18 days to go for the mega sporting event, the ambitious plan is likely to remain only on paper.

"Surveys are still on to check the situation. It will approximately take ten days more to get completed," said a senior official from the Health Department on the condition of anonymity.
A website www.smokefreedelhi.org was also launched by Dikshit for extending help to people who want to quit smoking. The CM had highlighted the fact that about 1.5 million people die every year globally because of tobacco usage.

Apparently the survey is at its final stages, but as it seems set to miss the Games deadline, the officials are carrying out the study without considering any timeframe.
"Who said that CWG is the deadline for us?" asked a senior official from the Health Department who did not wish to be named.

"Making cities smoke-free is not just about framing laws. Awareness campaigns should be conducted before such a plan is announced so that people accept the law in full earnest," said Monika Arora, Senior Director, HRIDAY, an NGO.

"When cities like New York were declared smoke-free, a number of awareness and advocacy campaigns were run to bring various stakeholders on board and to make law enforcers aware of their responsibilities under the law. It is only through sustained awareness generation and advocacy efforts among citizens that a city can actually become smoke-free", added Monika.

R P Vashisht, head of Delhi Health Department's anti-smoking cell said: "We will be able to decide things after the survey report comes out."

FINE FIGURE
A Delhi government official said 97,153 public places were raided following which 18,957 persons have been fined for smoking in public since October 2008 when smoking was banned in public places.
Also, 1,495 tobacco vendors were fined by the state government and a sum of Rs 1,675,240 was realised from the violators, the official added.