Patna: A district in Bihar having one of the largest cigarette-making factories in India has earned the rare distinction of being declared as the first “smoke-free” zone in the state. With this, the eastern Bihar district becomes 39th district in India to get this honour.
Munger, some 170km east of the capital city of Bihar, was declared the first “smoke-free” district in Bihar at a function organised by the District Tobacco Control Committee (DTCC) on Saturday.
The declaration was made by Munger District Magistrate Narendra Kumar Singh who is also the committee’s chairman.
Curiously, Munger is the district where the India Tobacco Company had set up one of its biggest units in 1910 while the country was still under British rule. ITC started off under the name Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited on August 24, 1910 and was later renamed as India Tobacco Company in 1970, I.T.C Limited in 1974 and ITC Limited in 2001.
Munger was one of the two districts in Bihar, apart from Patna, where the National Tobacco Control Programme was launched in 2010. Since its launch, DTCC in coordination with the Socio Ecological and Educational Development Society (Seeds) strictly ensured compliance of the tobacco control act.
According to the district magistrate, during the course of study, a total of 413 public places falling under three blocks of the district were selected for observation. The study said a remarkable 90 per cent of public places in all the three blocks displayed the no-smoking signs.
The study also found no active smoking at any public place. Smoking and cigarette butts were also not found there, authorities who conducted the survey said.
“This is a big achievement for Munger considering the fact that this is the district where India’s one of the largest cigarette-making firms, ITC, set up its unit in 1910,” executive director of Seeds Deepak Mishra told the media.
