India: Smoke in Secretariat Takes Fire Out of Ban

Source from:  The Times of India 11/11/2014

The Centre may be trying to strengthen anti-tobacco laws but in Tamil Nadu the secretariat itself is a smoking gun.

Despite the State Tobacco Control Cell's claim that it has been active in its fight against tobacco products, shopkeepers sell cigarettes and gutka - the concoction of crushed betel nut, tobacco, catechu, paraffin and lime that the state banned in 2013 - inside the secretariat complex in clear view of the offices of ministers, bureaucrats and top government officials.

People light up during office hours at these shops near the VIP entrance and main entrance of the secretariat building near Fort St George. Clearly no minister or official, even of the health department, has the time to pay any heed to this issue yet. Enditem