Smoking cigarettes in a public place is a punishable offense under the Indian Penal Code, and more so in public transport services, where such acts are easily witnessed. Yet, we often hear of people smoking in front of fellow travelers on a plane or train. Recently social media influencer Bobby Kataria was fined for smoking on a flight. In another such incident, the Indian Railways fined a passenger for smoking on a train. However, this has not deterred other criminals who indulge in such activities on trains.
In one such incident, a passenger posted a video on the microblogging platform, Twitter, complaining to India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav that a woman had been “smoking ganja and cigarettes all night” inside the train. The incident happened in Tatanagar-Katihar Express of passenger Parmanand Kumar Saav.
@Ashwini Vaishnav
These girls smoked ganja and secrete all night long
Yah log Asansol mein chadhi thi Tata Katihar train mein pic.twitter.com/vo5YwI3DIFParmanand Kumar Saw (@Parmana93518260) February 27, 2023
Sharing her outrage, she wrote that the woman boarded the train at Asansol and spent the entire night smoking marijuana and cigarettes. He wrote, “Ya people had boarded the Tata Katihar train in Asansol.” In response to his tweet, the railway service requested more details about the journey.
“Sir, we request you to kindly share the journey details (PNR/train number) and mobile number with us via DM. You can also directly express your concern at http://railmadad.indianrailways.gov.in or dial 139 for speedy redressal,” the railway service wrote.
In a similar incident, a video of a man smoking on a train went viral after a passenger named Manish Jain shared the video on Twitter. According to the information shared by the passenger, at Bandikui station in Dausa district of Rajasthan, an RPF jawan came in the train compartment and warned the youths not to smoke in the train.
law for smoking in trains
Smoking cigarettes in public places is prohibited by law under section 278 of the Indian Penal Code. Similarly, smoking in trains is prohibited under Section 167 of the Railways Act. Also, according to section 20 of the NDPS Act, possessing a small quantity of ganja is a punishable offence.