Banned tobacco products seized; shopkeepers fined

ITANAGAR: A large quantity of cigarettes and other banned tobacco products were seized during a sur-prise raid in and around educational institutes of Hapoli Township in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday.

The raid was part of the routine check to oversee illegal selling of cigarettes and other banned tobacco products under Section 6 (B) of COTPA Act 2003 which bans sale of any tobacco products within 100 yards of an educa-tional institution and . It is a punishable offence under Section 24 of the Act entailing a fine of Rs 200. Altogether 24 shops were found violating the Act and a fine of Rs 4800 were realized from them.

The raid was conducted under supervision of Town Magistrate Amina Nabam along with District Programme Officer (NTCP/NVD) Dr Subu Habung, NTCP social workers and police personnel.

During the raid, defaulting shopkeepers were issued stern warning to desist from selling these banned products and repeat offenders were made to give an undertaking that their trading license would be seized in case they are found to be selling these banned products again.

Appreciating the efforts of the raid team, Lower Subansiri DC Bamin Nime urged them to remain vigilant and conduct similar raids in and around all the educational institutions of twin Ziro-Hapoli townships to purge the sur-roundings of the educational institutions from tobacco and other banned substances, an official communique in-formed here.

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