Rajasthan Police Academy’s anti-tobacco model gets international attention

If all goes well, Rajasthan Police Academy’s (RPA) anti-tobacco campaign would soon go international!  

A delegation of Bangladeshi officials, including senior-level government officials, were on a trip to Jaipur RPA to study anti-tobacco campaign ‘Abhi Nahi to Kabhi Nahi’ (If not now then never), and possibly implement it in their country too.

Speaking at the seminar on anti-tobacco campaign organised by Rajasthan Voluntary Health Association, RPA director BL Soni said that in order to make the campaign a success, it should be implemented across the globe.

“Under the campaign, all police training centres in the state would be made tobacco free,” Soni said.

He stressed that ‘now’ is the best time to put a check on use of tobacco and thus a campaign has been started in all the police training schools in the state. Giving details of steps taken under the campaign, Soni said that the Indian Tobacco Control Act COTPA-2003 has been included in the police training course so that the youth entering the police services are informed of this evil.

The joint secretary of NGO Affairs Bureau, prime minister’s office, Bangladesh Raunak Mehmood sought more information on the campaign saying, “The campaign would be launched in police and other departments to free Bangladesh of tobacco use.”

Mehmood reiterated that the RPA model can be presented as an ideal for other countries to follow.

The Bangladeshi delegates on Friday also toured the Academy and visited the mess, hospital and collected more information on the day-to-day goings-on at the Academy. The delegates appreciated RPA’s management and congratulated the officials for the same.

Later, they also met Jaipur mayor Jyoti Khandelwal and took a briefing on working of Jaipur Municipal Corporation. The mayor shared her views with the delegation on civic issues and how sanitation, electricity as well as road repair work can be expedited.