Tobacco vendor licensing to become mandatory in Kulgam

Srinagar, Aug 02: Kulgam district to become the first district in Jammu and Kashmir to make it mandatory for shops to obtain licences for selling cigarettes and other tobacco products, officials said.
Dr Mir Mushtaq, Nodal Officer (Kashmir Division), National Tobacco Control Programme, said the district would make it mandatory for tobacco sellers in Kulgam to take a license.
“The district would be taken in view of the growing problem of tobacco and the danger it poses to public health and also ensure effective enforcement of the rules and policies applicable for tobacco control,” he told Rising Kashmir.
Mir said Kulgam will become the first district in J&K to issue vendor licenses online to the shopkeepers who want to sell cigarettes and they need licences for that.
“Shopkeepers would not be allowed to sell cigarettes around educational institutions so that we can control the tobacco menace,” the spokesperson said.
In 2021, the Union Health Ministry sent a letter to all State governments recommending the licensing of tobacco vendors.
The Nodal Officer said during the Tobacco Free Youth Campaign, a two-month-long initiative launched by the Union Health Ministry in May and which successfully concluded on Tuesday, Kulgam has emerged as the best performing district in the UT.
In J&K, the anti-tobacco campaign was launched by Administrative Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Bhupinder Kumar on World No Tobacco Day on May 31 under the banner of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA).
Over the past two months, Kulgam district conducted regular enforcement drives under the administrative control of Deputy Commissioner and ADC Kulgam and marketing checkings were conducted to see the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in the district.
“During the campaign, the advertisements and posters of tobacco products were removed across the district and it vigorously monitored the campaign,” he said.
“There was coordination between health, police, education and other line departments. Drives were conducted and people were encouraged to skip tobacco products,” Mir said.
He said DC Kulgam took a personal interest and was taking regular meetings of the NTCP program in the district and the program has been successful in the district.
While sharing the details of the two-month progress, in Kulgam, Mir said the district generated Rs 78,530 and 849 people were challaned in eight medical blocks, a progress which was not seen in any other district in J&K.
As per the National Health Survey, J&K is sixth highest in the country after North Eastern States i.e., Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram in terms of tobacco consumption.
As per the NHS figures, the prevalence of tobacco in Kashmir includes Kupwara 56 percent, Shopian 52 percent, Anantnag and Bandipora 49 percent, Budgam 48, Pulwama 44, Ganderbal 42, Baramulla and Kulgam 41 percent and Srinagar 38 percent.
Tobacco use is associated with accelerated mortality among adults, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.