The rally organized under the aegis of Nepal Cancer Relief Society commenced from local Basantapur and went around different parts of the town before turning into a gathering upon reaching Basantapur again.[break]
Government officials, representatives of the stakeholder organizations, and school and college students participated in the rally holding banners and placards with various anti-smoking slogans written on them.
The World No Tobacco Day is being observed in the country on Thursday around the slogan- No to Interference of Tobacco Industry.
Chairman of the Nepal Cancer Relief Society, Ishwar Shrestha, alleged that the government was not doing enough to strictly enforce the Act on the Regulation and Control of Tobacco Products- 2011.
He called on the government to enforce the provisions in the Act that require 75 per cent of the cigarette packs and other tobacco products should be covered by illustrations and symbols warning about hazards of smoking and tobacco consumption.
General Secretary of the Consumer Welfare Protection Forum, Jyoti Baniya, stressed that the state should effectively monitor the implementation of the Act on Control and Regulation of Tobacco Products.
It is stated that tobacco products contain over 4,000 different harmful chemicals which could cause 25 different types of diseases. Eleven thousand people die in the world on a single day and one person every seven seconds due to tobacco-related diseases. The World No Tobacco Day is celebrated throughout the world on May 31 every year since 1987.
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