Image: Northeast Now

On the roads of eastern Assam’s Jorhat, along with the black and white zebra crossings will be visible protective yellow stripes on either side of educational institutions banning the sale of life threatening tobacco products.

The move was initiated on Tuesday by the District Tobacco Control Cell in collaboration with the police and district administration.

Also read: Assam: Jorhat district administration to act tough against hookah bars

The first yellow lines were drawn on either side of the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School at Baruah Chariali with the support of students and staff of the school.

Jorhat superintendent of police Vaibhav Nimbalkar inaugurated the campaign.

In his address he asked the students to draw a preventive yellow line within themselves so as not to be tempted by narcotics.

Bhaktimay Bhattacharyya nodal officer, DTCC said that the district administration had initiated the process of drawing these yellow lines near educational institutions from Tuesday.

“The district administration has decided to paint a yellow line on the streets to demarcate the 100 metre radius from the boundary of the educational institutes in order to make it easy for the District Tobacco Control Cell (DTCC) to prevent shops from selling of tobacco and tobacco-related products,” he said.

“Under section 6 a of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (COTPA) Act, 2003, tobacco and tobacco-related items cannot be sold within the radius of 100 metres of an educational institute and there is provision of penalty if the said provision of the law is violated, ” he said.

The drawing of yellow lines comes in the wake of a meeting held on August 2 when the administration had also brought hookah bars under its scanner as means to encouraging youths to take to smoking although they were not illegal per se as most used sweeteners instead of tobacco as the media.

Smita Bhattacharyya is Northeast Now Correspondent in Jorhat. She can be reached at: [email protected]