MCD poll booths declared tobacco-free for the first time
All polling booths for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections have been declared tobacco-free by the Delhi State Election Commission, in a first in the country. Additionally, banners having content related to the ill effects of tobacco will be displayed at entry gates of all booths. However, a no-smoke policy was implemented at poll booths in 2014 general elections.
New Delhi, Apr 20 (PTI) In a first in the country, the Delhi State Election Commission has declared all the 13,234 polling booths tobacco free ahead of the MCD polls, to be held this Sunday. The move comes after Delhi governments Health Department approached the State Election Commissioner urging him to declare all the polling stations as tobacco free zones rather than just declaring them as smoke-free as it used to be in earlier elections. In a letter to Commissioner S K Srivastava, Additional Director (Health) Dr S K Arora noted that since chew-able tobacco, a leading cause of oral cancer, is already banned in Delhi, the polling booths should be declared tobacco free. The decision should be taken in larger public health interest, he stressed. The Commission has now sought cooperation of the Commissioners of all three civic bodies - South, North and East municipal corporation -- to create tobacco free poll booths for the MCD polls and display multi-colour banners at each location indicating the same. "It is an excellent opportunity to sensitise nearly 1.33 crore adults on a single day as they will come to cast their vote at the polling booths," Dr Arora said. He said 90 per cent of oral cancers, 40 per cent of all cancers and 30 per cent of tuberculosis cases occur because of tobacco habits. Also, 20 per cent cases of diabetes, hypertension, heart attack and brain stroke are also linked to tobacco consumption, he added. The Health department will also provide signages/banners to be displayed at the entry gate of each polling booth. The banners will have content to educate people about the ill effects of tobacco consumption including smoking. 