Officials of the district Tobacco Control Cell on Thursday stumbled upon foreign cigarettes being sold illegally in various shops in the city.
Officials of the cell, who were on an inspection of Metagalli in Mysuru for enforcement of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), seized several samples of smuggled cigarettes from the shops. “The cigarettes were smuggled into the country. The packets did not even bear the mandatory pictorial warning covering 85% of the cover,” said Shivakumar, COTPA consultant.
The officials, who are conducting such inspections in different parts of the city every week, said the menace is rampant. Though the smuggled cigarettes are not kept on display, they are made available to those asking for them, an official said.
On Thursday, the cell booked 33 cases under various sections of COTPA and collected a total penalty of ₹5,100. Most of the cases pertained to Section 4 of COTPA, which prohibits smoking in public places and Section 6, which prohibits the sale of cigarettes to minors and within 100 metres of an educational institution.
