Ramadoss on ground zero, aims higher

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss celebrated his big day on Thursday distributing pamphlets highlighting the ban to passengers at a bus terminus in Chennai.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss celebrated his big day on Thursday distributing pamphlets highlighting the ban to passengers at a bus terminus in Chennai. And he isn8217;t done yet 8212; his next big wish is a bar on all tobacco products. Ramadoss assured he wouldn8217;t do it immediately but 8220;take into consideration farmers8221;, provide them 8220;alternative employment8221;. 8220;My intention and my aim is to make India a tobacoo-free nation,8221; he said. 8220;But I do not have the power to do so.8221;

Shah Rukh8217;s 8216;happy8217;, says next hang smokers

Minister Ramadoss and he may have traded enough fire over smoke, but on Thursday, actor Shah Rukh Khan wasn8217;t puffing or panting. Tongue firmly in cheek, he said: 8220;The ban is a good step to make sure that the country is smoke-free. Better step would be to ban cigarettes, make them illegal and hang anyone who is smoking. We cannot do that as we are a democratic country.8221; Khan added: 8220;I hope everyone calls upon their good selves to give up smoking.8221; For Ramadoss, he added more: 8220;I myself would try my best.8221;

Mumbai says bye with cheer, but tomorrow another day

Mumbai bars clocked midnight on Wednesday by asking customers to stop smoking. At Bandra8217;s famous Toto8217;s Garage, they were rather cheerful about it, even doing a countdown to the last minutes of free smoking, and then collectively stubbing out. A nervous management, however, was unsure how long the cheer would last. While officials took it easy 8212; October 2 being a public holiday 8212; the story was the same as other Mumbai big joints and hotels took it upon themselves to impose the ban; ashtrays for one couldn8217;t be seen in hotel lobbies. However, police officials acknowledged they remained clueless about their role.

Pune tries to find its way around in ban haze

In Pune, they were figuring out what fell and what didn8217;t in the ban zone. Kashinath Telange, Controller at the Pune Municipal Corporation, had his lines drawn: 8220;Smoking inside a bus is already banned. With the new law in place, we will ask a commuter to get down if he refuses to stop smoking.8221; However, he wasn8217;t as sure about fines. 8220;We have no orders on fines as yet, but we will be receiving them soon.8221; Pune Station Manager J M Laturkar insisted they hadn8217;t found anyone smoking in the station. 8220;The official directive is to impose a fine on anyone found smoking on the platform or anywhere inside the railway station,8221; he said.

23 fined in Gujarat, ask: Is there a ban?

Gujarat had it all worked out 8212; an orientation programme as well as proper authorisations to designated authorities to issue challans 8212; but spent the first day ruing lack of 8220;an enforcement squad8221;. Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas took a more optimistic view: it is the message rather than the enforcement itself which is important, he said. In Vadodara, the police faced no such dilemmas as 23 habitual smokers found smoking in public places were fined Rs 200 each. Many claimed they had no idea a ban existed.

Just wait till next week, warn Chennai police

In Chennai, with Minister Ramadoss around, nobody was hauled up on the first day of the ban for lighting up. But police said that was deliberate. For the first few days, it would be only warning and educating, they said. From next week onwards, stringent steps would be taken.