Election Commission of India has banned smoking in all polling stations during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the country.
The Election Commission, in the Handbook for Presiding Officers, directed the officials to ensure that no one smokes inside the polling stations.
"Smoking inside polling station is prohibited. See that neither you nor your Polling Officers nor anybody else in the polling station including the polling agents smoke inside the polling station," the EC guidelines read.
The EC guidelines also directed the presiding officers to ask polling agents to leave the polling station without disturbing the polling in case any of them wanted to smoke.
"If any of the polling agents desires to smoke, he may be asked to go out of the polling station without causing any dislocation to the polling," the guidelines read.
Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to ban smoking inside polling stations on March 25 and Bihar followed suit on March 30.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir Umang Narula banned smoking inside polling stations following a petition by J&K Voluntary Health Association, an anti-tobacco NGO, headed by A M Mir.
