The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a human chain yesterday demanded immediate steps to stop the use of tobacco in dramas, films and electronic media to prevent the youths of the country picking up the tobacco habit including smoking.

They also called upon the government to take initiatives to implement Tobacco Control Law to save the new generation of the country from wrong path and destroying their lives.

'Pratyasha' Anti Drug Club and Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB Trust) jointly formed the human chain in front of Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University.

General Secretary of Pratyasha Helal Ahmed presided over the programme while it was addressed, among others, by Chairman of Nirapad Development Foundation Ibnul Said Rana, executive director of SHARP, an environmental organisation, Abdul Hye Shamim, project officer of WBB Trust Syeda Annanya Rahman, its programme officer Syed Saiful Alam Shovan, Arifur Rahman Bhuiyan Murad and Shuvankar Chakrabarty.

The speakers said that the children, juveniles and youths watch drama and films and tend to follow the actors and actresses. So they can easily be habituated in the use of tobacco following them, they added.

'If the government does not stop the use of tobacco in the drama, films and electronic media, the aims and objectives of formulating the Tobacco Control Law will be frustrated,' they said.