Crackdown on smoking in Goa music festivals sought

An anti-tobacco vigilante organisation has asked Goa Police to launch a crackdown on smoking at the two mega Electronic Dance Music (EDM) events to be held later this week.

In a request to the North Goa Superintendent of Police Priyanka Kashyap, the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), an anti-tobacco federation of 20 non-governmental organisations, has demanded strict implementation of the ban on smoking in public places as well as the Cigarette and the Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.

"Addiction of drugs is through smoking. And, if we strongly implement COTPA 2003, it will help to curb down drug menace which is rising in the state of Goa," NOTE's general secretary Shekhar Salkar requested the police in a letter.

The two music festivals -- Sunburn and VH1 Supersonic -- are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of EDM fans from across the country. The festivals will be held at two separate venues this week.

In the past, NOTE had issued legal notices to several Bollywood personalities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Ajay Devgan, for smoking in public places or alleged promotion of smoking as film publicity material.