Jump to full article: Outlook India Magazine (in), 2008-10-08
Intro: Earlier, you could at least find a few puffing cigarettes furitively at bus stands and railway stations as there is already a Court directive against smoking in Kerala, but the Centre's recent ban is fast ensuring that such incidents do not occur anymore, thanks to the special initiative taken by police.
"Smoking in public places is even otherwise punishable in the state since 1999, following a High Court directive. But what the recent ban has done is to take up the issue more seriously, demanding the police to be more effective', says City Police Commissioner Anoop Kuruvilla John.
`The ban has been reasonably well-enforced in the state even earlier, when the guilty had to personally appear in the Court to pay a fine upto Rs.500', he says, adding that on an average, about 350 cases were booked a month in Kozhikode alone till recently. . . .
Interestingly, many hotels and restaurants have come up with signboards issuing warnings against smoking, thereby solely leaving it to the customer to run the risk of being apprehended in case of violating the ban.
Reports from neighbouring Malappuram district say that the `urge' for smoking has driven smokers even to use-and-pay public toilets.
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