Panaji, Dec 23 (IANS) The National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE) has taken objection to gross violation of smoking laws at the recently concluded Bacardi blast, a music festival held in Goa over the last weekend.
Taking suo moto cognisance of television news footage showing the audience at the music festival smoking in a public environment, NOTE general secretary Shekhar Salkar said the anti-tobacco organisation would file a first information report (FIR) at the Panaji police station later Wednesday.

“The FIR is against the organisers for allowing their patrons to smoke in public places, which is in gross violation of cigarettes and other tobacco products act. The onus of not allowing smoking in a public place is on the organisers. We have seen the video footage of the audience smoking, which is evidence enough,” said Salkar, whose NOTE has in the past dragged Bollywood bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan for promoting smoking through films and film publicity material.

“We had found similar instances of smoking in public places during the government organised International Film Festival of India (IFFI) this year, following which we filed an FIR with the local police,” Salkar told IANS.

Superintendent of Police (North district) Bosco George said the police would act on a complaint submitted along with video evidence.

“Smoking in a public place is illegal. If there is video evidence, we have no hesitation in registering a complaint,” George said.

The organisers did not respond to queries despite repeated attempts.