Maharashtra could soon have unpaid sweepers cleaning government offices

#SwatchhBharat #tobacco #spitting #maharashtra In keeping with the Swatchh Bharat campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the initiative proposed to be taken by Maharashtra to ban tobacco chewing and spitting in public in order to ensure cleanliness is a laudable step. Chewing of tobacco can lead to cancer and spitting in public places carries with it the grave danger of spreading diseases.
Spitting in public places could lead to spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 March 2015.
Under the proposal, if a person is caught not just spitting tobacco juice but even chewing it in a public place, he might have to become an unpaid government sweeper for a day – he would have to sweep for eight hours.
This is what the state health department is considering in the hope that such a stringent punishment against tobacco users would help to curb the habit.
Health Minister Deepak Sawant has indicated that if a person is found spitting from a luxury car, he would also not be spared - he should be made to clean a government office for a day. However, if a driver spits on the road, his license should be suspended for at least a month.
This proposal has, apparently, been forwarded to the state law and judiciary department for legal opinion.
Implementation is difficult because in Maharashtra every second person is addicted to tobacco and a situation could come when the government offices would be full of unpaid sweepers and there would not be enough places to clean.