With Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) beginning to remove hoarding boards for alcohol and tobacco from Tuesday, Valley denizens, sick of the murky styles of promoting harmful products, will not have to tolerate provocative advertisements any longer. [break]
"We need just 15 days," said KMC´s enforcement department Chief Dhanapati Sapkota, who headed a team of metropolitan police on Tuesday to remove hoarding boards of alcohol and tobacco. "After two weeks, no one will have to turn their children´s heads away while walking past such provocative hoarding boards."
Along with KMC, all municipalities across the country are about to start removing such hoarding boards.
In Kathmandu alone, more than 200 road intersections have mega-sized hoarding boards with female models displaying different brands of alcohol and tobacco.
"Alcohol and tobacco products are in themselves harmful to public health," Sapkota said. "In addition, the way alcohol and tobacco companies promote their products has unleashed a sense of unease, especially among those who hang out with their families."
KMC is removing hoarding boards of alcohol and tobacco following a Supreme Court (SC) verdict and a decision of the Council of Ministers (CoM).
A few months ago, SC had instructed KMC to remove all hoarding boards promoting tobacco and alcohol from public places. Subsequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), adhering to CoM´s decision, instructed municipalities including KMC to remove the hoarding boards.
"We were supposed to remove these hoarding boards from public places much earlier," said Mahesh Kafle, Chief of Revenue Department at KMC. "We, however, had agreements with alcohol and tobacco companies for one fiscal year. Had we removed the hoarding boards before mid-July, we would have had to pay back money. Thus, we waited for the expiry of deals."
Last fiscal year, KMC collected Rs 17 million from hoarding boards. Of the total amount, alcohol and tobacco contributed three million. "Alcohol and tobacco have always been a major source of revenue for KMC."
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