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One week in and still nobody fined for smoking at public sites 

One week after smoking was banned in offices and public sites not one person has been fined for breaking the new rules.

The law not being implemented is coming as no surprise. Nguyen Van Truong, vice head of the Hanoi Railway Station, said: “We ask passengers at the ticket booths or waiting areas to put out cigarettes. Some of them obey while some continue smoking”.

Outside these areas, the station’s guards cannot ask people to stop smoking. The ban is announced via the station’s loudspeakers but has had little effect.

Truong said the Hanoi Railway Station has not fined anyone because there is no mechanism to impose fines. “Our staffs don’t have the right,” Truong said.

It is the same at other public sites like Giap Bat and My Dinh coach station and even in hospitals.

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