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| Customary fanfare smokes anti-smoking campaign Babus, ministers must take the onus | | | Early Times Report
srinagar, May 31: With customary fanfare the World anti-smoking day was observed across Jammu and Kashmir state today. As usual, functions, seminars, awareness campaigns were held and anti-smoking literature was distributed among the participants at official functions.
Many newspapers were also obliged with anti-smoking advertisements with photographs of ministers and in some cases, senior bureaucrats as well. Long speeches were delivered to half asleep audiences at many places at the provincial and district levels.
In a nutshell, the day was well spent as another 'busy day for the administration'. Tomorrow the message would not only be forgotten, but it would go up literally in the smoke that high quality cigarettes from the ministers' and bureaucrats' mouths emit.
It is a positive indication that the state chief minister, Omar Abdullah does not smoke. His father and grandfather did smoke for sometime in their younger days, but gave up smoking long before it became a matter of official campaign. This is a silver lining to the official anti-smoking campaign which must serve as the beacon for the ministers and bureaucrats to follow.
But, the problem is that except for some, most of our ministers, political advisors and bureaucrats are smokers. At the first available opportunity after meetings, seminars and official functions the first thing our ministers and bureaucrats do is light a cigarette. It is simply a plain case of preaching without practising and unless the ministers and the bureaucrats lead by example nothing is really going to change on the ground.
The state is equipped with enough anti-smoking laws and these must be used as deterrents to dissuade smokers. The biggest challenge for the state government is to ensure that there is 100% ban on smoking in educational institutions, government offices and all other public places. Hotels, restaurants, airports, railways stations, police stations and every such place where people come to sort out their daily problems must be protected from the deadly smoke that emits from the tips of cigarettes.
Charity must always begin at home. No civil servant should be allowed to smoke while on duty and discouraging steps must be taken against those who are otherwise known smokers. The youth of our state must be protected from the scourge of smoking and this can only be done if elders decide to give up smoking. The society is already aware of the harmful effects of smoking all that is now needed is the will and firmness from the state government to make Jammu and Kashmir a smokeless state. |
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