Smoke-Free Places - Post Offices and Banks

After public places, government offices, the post offices and banks too have been declared tobacco free in the Kashmir Valley, where several hundred persons, including employees and doctors, were fined for violating the ban during the past few months. Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Amir Ali in the office of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, said Chief Post Master General (CPMG) Jammu and Kashmir, John Samuel has declared all the Post Offices and Administrative Offices in the state as 'Tobacco-free'. He has further ordered that 'no-smoking' signages would be displayed at all the Post offices in the state. Earlier Chairman J&K Bank had also issued instructions for prohibiting smoking in all Bank branches as well as ATMs. He said the Vice Chancellor (VC) Kashmir University (KU) declared the University campus smoke free. These orders were an outcome of the sustained drive launched by J&K Voluntary Health Association (J&KVHA) to create awareness about the provisions of Anti Tobacco Act and prohibiting of smoking in public places. Several hundred people, mostly government employees and doctors were fined for smoking in hospitals and offices during the past several months.