Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Mr. Kaul Singh Thakur said that Himachal Pradesh Government is making all out efforts to implement National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) launched by the Government of India in its true spirit. He was speaking during a conference organized on tobacco control at Bloomberg in New York on 10th of November.
He said, to achieve the goal of tobacco control as those envisaged under the NTCP, the State is ought to expand efforts in key areas.
The new partnerships would be formed with other stakeholders to ensure that provisions of tobacco control law are upheld. The State has created very successful government – civil society partnerships to support innovative initiatives which protect youth from getting exposed to tobacco use. Secondly, the State Government would support implementation of the law both through public education and meticulous enforcement.
The Minister said the strategy of the State would be to develop tobacco-free generations. The educational institutions are particularly vulnerable to tactics of tobacco industry. It was must to ensure that a policy to exclude tobacco industry from public policy needs to be in place and help eliminate the proliferation of tobacco industry near our homes, schools and workplace.
He said the Government will continue working on all aspects of tobacco control concertedly. Himachal Pradesh was declared smokefree in July 2013 and now efforts are being made to make Himachal the first fully-compliant state to all provisions of tobacco control law.
