Workshop on National Tobacco Control program held in Udhampur

UDHAMPUR : Directorate of Health Services, Jammu in collaboration with District health Society Udhampur today organized a day long workshop on National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) for enforcement squads cum District level Coordination Committee for tobacco control.

Deputy Commissioner, Indu Kanwal Chib, who is also the Chairman of District Health Society Udhampur inaugurated the event as the Chief Guest, held in Conference Hall DC Office Complex.

At the outset, Dr. K C Dogra Chief Medical Officer, gave a brief overview of the workshop & objective of the DLCC meeting through a PowerPoint presentation. The CMO highlighted the role and responsibilities of designated committee members on Tobacco Control.

Divisional Coordinator Jammu, Shiveta Raina also spoke on the occasion and informed the participants about the burden of tobacco use in India including J&K. She also briefed the participants about NTCP and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003. She added that the main objective of organizing this training programme is to engage the key stakeholders such as senior government officials, national experts to build the capacity of the stakeholders and to get a better understanding regarding enforcement of the provisions of the COTPA -2003 and to implement the National Tobacco control programme.

During the training programme, the Key note address on advancing tobacco control in District Udhampur was delivered by experts through virtual mode, while the technical session on Epidemiology and burden of tobacco use in India and UT J&K was also conducted online by Dr Shivam Kapoor.

While addressing the training programme, the DC laid thrust on enforcement of the COTPA 2003 in letter and spirit. She also called for the constitution of enforcement squads within the shortest possible time. Necessary instructions were issued for better implementation of the programme in the district with inter-sectoral convergence so as to make the programme a big success in Udhampur district.

The SDMs and Tehsildars were asked to inspect all the educational institutions in the light of COTPA-2003 and submit a compliance report after drawing a yellow line around the educational institutions.

The DC directed the officers for declaration of tobacco free govt buildings, offices, educational institutions, public places. District officers were further directed to install no smoking signage in their respective offices

The DC also asked the Divisional Nodal Officer to give challan books to all the authorized officers for penalizing the violators under COTPA-2003.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

Assistant Commissioner Development, Mushtaq Chowdhary; DHO, Dr Mohd Yaseen; DTO, Dr Kavi Raj; Medical Superintendent DH, Dr Vijay Raina and other District and Sectoral officers besides representatives of NGO attended the meeting.