Question

why do you think smoke legislation act first came up in Calcutta

Answer 1

An Act to provide for prohibiting the use of tobacco in any form and spitting in places of public work or use and in public service vehicles in the State of West Bengal and to make provisions for the protection of health of non-smokers and minors and other matters concerned therein or incidental thereto.

WHERAS it is expedient, in the public interest, to prohibit the use of tobacco in any form and spitting in places of public work or use in any public service vehicles and to protect the health of non-smokers and minors in the State of West Bengal;

It is hereby enacted in the Fifty-second Year of the Republic of India, by the Legislature of West Bengal, as follows:-

1. Short title, extent and commencement:-

(1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Prohibition of Smoking and Spitting and Protection of Health of Non-smokers and Minors Act, 2001.

(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.

(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

2. Definitions:-

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires.-

(1) “advertisement” means and includes any notice, circular, wall-paper, pamphlets, display on hoardings, telephone booths or any visible representation made by means of any light, sound, smoke, gas, writing instruments, stickers, symbol, colours, logo, trade mark, display on articles like T-shirts, shoes, sportswear, sportsgears, caps, carry bags, etc., or any other means which has direct or indirect effect of promoting smoking and/or tobacco chewing and the expression “advertise” shall be construed accordingly;

(2) “authorised officer” means any person authorised under section 4 of this Act;

(3) “chewing” means chewing of tobacco, gul (tobacco powder), khaini, use of gudakhu (tobacco paste), supari with tobacco, pan masala, zarda, ghutka, and the like;

(4) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette;

(5) “place of public work or use” means public places namely auditoriums, hospital buildings, health institutions, educational institutions, libraries, court buildings, public offices and public conveyances including Railways;

(6) “public service vehicle” means a vehicle as defined under clause (35) of section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988;

(7) “smoking” means smoking of tobacco in any form, whether in the form of cigarette, cigar, beedies or otherwise with the aid of pipe, wrapper, or any other instrument;

(8) “spitting” means voluntary ejection of saliva from the mouth after or without chewing and ejection of mucus from the nose with or without inhaling snuff;

(9) “State Government” means the Government of the State of West Bengal.

Answer 2

'Smoke laws' first enacted in 'city of joy'. Because of its 'political importance in the British Empire', 'Calcutta' was one of the 'first cities to regulate smoke emissions'. But legislation failed to keep up with 'technology and today', the city is one of the most polluted in the world.

EXPLANATION:

• Smoke was cited as one of the health hazards of the Europeans in Calcutta in the 18th century, along with wind, dust, humidity and noisy smells. Calcutta has had a unique air pollution situation. The Calcutta air pollution was high as it was not dissipated into the atmospheric sink, because the heavy industry was located close to the Bengal coalfield and had its peculiar topographical and weather characteristics. Unlike in Bombay, winds were prevented from diluting smoke in Calcutta, particularly from November to March. The urban area was vulnerable to repeated temperature reversals that stopped the downstream ventilation and trapped smoke. And Calcutta, like London, had recurring fogs. By the 1870s, big floods of smoke were a routine part of Calcutta's life. In general, residents of Calcutta complained more about the dark and smelling smoke varieties, although it was not necessarily harmful than the less visible smoke which contained unsafe compounds. Europeans complained of the dung and light biomass in Calcutta, but accepted domestic wood smoke; Bengalis dismissed dung smoke, but complained about industrial carbon emissions.
• The first proper railway of the country in 1855, linking Calcutta to the Raniganj coalfields, significantly increased the use of coal. Calcutta became the center of the industrial corridor of Hooghly— Asia's Ruhr valley— with indigenous coal available for steam engines and a corresponding increase in air pollution. Smoke problem has been compounded by Indian carbon's poor quality, which weights between 14.8 and 47 per cent ash and creates more smoke than British coal. In 1863, Calcutta became one of the world's first cities to adopt smoke nuisance regulations because of the smoke problem which aroused official fear and anxiety. Frederick Grover, Leeds Smoke Inspector, was commissioned to make recommendations for smoke-reduction from a commission set up in 1879 for investigation of the problem. Grover's study contributed to the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Act of 1905, which was followed by the creation, during the colonial era, of the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Committee. A systematic nevertheless selective smoke abatement program all through the colonial period.
• Calcutta's problem of smoke was closely linked to its role in the British Empire as a political urgency. Before 1911, Calcutta became the government seat and, until the First World War, was the subcontinent's capital.  However, the two radically different ecological sorts of issues in Calcutta were highlighted by Smoke-one, its busy streets and poor sanitation which Europeans associated with colonial Asia, and the other, the social disruption of European industrialisation and the heavy pollution which they knew of it. Calcutta was held by the city's dominant European population only due to the exercise of scientific influence.