All water transports, river & sea ports will smoke free soon

The people are exposing by second hand smoking in public places and public transports including water transport. To reducing the expose of second hand smoking, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has decided that all water transports and river & sea ports will smoke free soon. The decision has been taken in a Monthly Coordination Meeting of BIWTA Chaired by Commodore M Mozammel Haque, (G), NUP, ndc, psc, BN on 19 March 2018 at the conference room of BIWTA. He also declared that anti tobacco video clips with messages will be displayed in the big LED TV in the port areas. BIWTA will also operate mobile courts and organize some big anti tobacco seminar in port areas. The Chairman has also seek support from Dhaka Ahsania Mission & Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids for implementing in water transport sector. The three members of BIWTA, Mr. Md. Golam Mostaf, Joint Secretary & Member (Engineering), Mr. Md. Shahidul Islam, Joint Secretary & Member (Finance), Mr. Md. Nurul Alam, Joint Secretary & Member (Planning & Operation), Mr. Kazi Wakil Nawaz, Secretary of BIWTA and all Departmental Heads  attended the meeting. On the other hand, Mr. Sharafuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer, Savar Municipality, Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman Bhuiyan, Grants Manager (Bangladesh), Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Ataur Rahman Masud, Program Officer of CTFK, Md. Riasat al Razi, Digital Media Manager of CTFK and Mr. Aminul Islam Sujan, Program Officer of National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) were attended the meeting and delivered their speech. On behalf Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Mr. Iqbal Masud, Head, Health Sector of DAM was participated the meeting and requested to the Chairman of BIWTA for taking necessary initiatives and action for smoke free water transports and smoke free river & sea  ports. The key note paper was presented by Sharmeen Rahman, Program Officer, and Tobacco Control Program of DAM. A total of 55 high level Officers from BIWTA were participated in the meeting .They expressed their strong commitment to implement the Tobacco control activities in their working areas. The Chairperson of the meeting also thanked Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) for assistance and spontaneous participation.