Mayor of Rangpur Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa on Thursday urged the present government for announcing zero tolerance against tobacco like drug and corruption to build a tobacco-free healthier Bangladesh, reports BSS. He made the call while presiding over at a views-sharing cum action plan meeting titled “Establishing atobacco-free Rangpur city” organised by Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) atits conference room in the city.
Rajshahi-based development and human rights organisationAssociation for Community Development (ACD) extended assistance in arranging the event in cooperation with Campaign for Tobacco- Free Kids and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Advocacy Officer of ACD Shariful Islam Shameem delivered multimedia presentation discussing severe consequences of tobacco consumption in the meeting conducted by its Programme Manager Shariful Islam Shamim.
Panel Mayors Md. Shamsul Haque and Mahmudur Rahman, City Councilors, Urban Planner of RpCC Md, Nazrul Islam, its sanitary Inspector Md. Abdul Kaiyum, Assistant Engineer Sajjadur Rahman, Slum Development Officer Selima Mian, among others, spoke. In his presentation, Shariful narrated violation of tobacco control laws by some tobacco companies and their newer tactics of advertisements and using children forincreasing sales of tobacco products. He called uponRpCC authority for conducting publicity at public places and transports and workplaces to ensure tobacco free atmosphere and stopping sales of tobacco products within 100-metre peripheries of educational institutions in the city.
Mayor Mostafa said the RpCC will take all necessary steps to establish a tobacco-free Rangpur city as per its prevailing guidelines toward the directions. “We can fix festoons with RpCC monogram at different places to discourage consumption oftobacco products and will conduct mobile courts in increased frequencies to ensure strict enforcement of the related tobacco control laws in thecity,” he said.
