Close on the heels of a government decision of tightening the noose around tobacco trade in Jharkhand, the Ranchi district administration has started demarcating areas around schools as tobacco-free zones. In the past 48 hours, areas falling in 100 meter radius of at least 55 schools in the State capital have been marked with “yellow lines” to indicate that the sale and consumption of tobacco products in the said areas was prohibited, officials from the district administration said on Thursday.

“Legal actions will be taken against people found selling or consuming tobacco products in the demarcated tobacco-free zone around educational institutions,” said Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan.

The Jharkhand government has imposed a blanket ban on pan masala and gutkha across the state and also come up with the provision of issuing special licences to tobacco traders in Jharkhand recently. A government order issued earlier this week also stated that government employees in Jharkhand will have to sign an affidavit vowing not to consume tobacco products.

The campaign of making the vicinity of educational institutions tobacco-free will be run extensively across the district this week, officials said, claiming that one of the major objectives of the campaign was to discourage the use of tobacco products by minors and students in their early twenties.

The deputy commissioner has directed officials to cover all the government and private schools across the district in the next couple of days. The district administration will also hold meetings with representatives of various schools in the city to ensure that they spread awareness about the hazardous impact of tobacco on health and environment, officials said.

The sale and consumption of tobacco products in the vicinity of educational institutions has been banned under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. However, the sale of tobacco products continued unabated near some of the reputed schools in the state capital despite the ban, sources said. Many stationary shops and small cafeterias have been selling cigarettes to school students in the vicinity of educational institutions here.

Meanwhile, the administration in the state capital has also launched a special drive to put a check on the entry of banned tobacco products in Ranchi district from neighbouring districts, officials said.

Following an order from the Ranchi deputy commissioner, officials slapped fine worth nearly Rs.40,000 on tobacco traders selling loose cigarettes and banned pan masala in rural and urban areas of the district in the past 48 hours.