Mirpur superstore Prince Bazar fined for violating tobacco control law

Superstore ‘Prince Bazar’ at capital Dhaka’s Mirpur has been fined again for a breach of the tobacco control law.

This time a Dhaka mobile court penalised it Tk 150,000 on Tuesday, nearly twice the amount it was slapped with in April this year for displaying tobacco products.

The new law passed last year bars all sorts of tobacco advertisements, even at sales outlets.

Its violation may land someone in jail for three months or make them pay a maximum fine of Tk 100,000 or both. The penalty gets doubled for repeat offenders.

The government has amended the law to make it more stringent because of growing tobacco use in Bangladesh.

A study shows more than 43 percent of adults either smoke or chew tobacco.

The law also bans the selling of cigarettes to those under18.

Dhaka Ahsania Mission, that provides technical support to the Dhaka city corporations for conducting mobile courts, said Tuesday that the court also fined Gazi General Store at Mirpur Tk 35,000.

The Store had been fined Tk 10,000 in April.

Executive magistrate Rahima Khatun who conducted the mobile court warned the managers of the two shops that they would be thrown into jail if they further violated the law.