Health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra announced a string of measures to curb smoking on Tuesday.

?The anti-smoking and anti-tobacco campaigns in cities like Mumbai and Delhi have been very effective,? said Mishra, a smoker, admitting that cigarette and tobacco consumption had assumed alarming proportions in Calcutta.

?In both cities, cigarettes are not readily available and smoking in public is restricted. Our efforts in comparison have been dismal, but it is time we did something about it,? stressed the health minister, after daylong meetings with Central and state health department officials on World No Tobacco Day.

Union health ministry and state government surveys indicate that Calcuttans are at a higher risk of suffering from tobacco-related diseases. The city is second only to Delhi in tobacco consumption figures, ahead of Patna, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

?We have the laws here, but the nodal agencies have to be more effective. The awareness in the city is also very poor and we have failed in our endeavour to curb smoking,? Mishra lamented.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seems to feel no need to kick the habit himself. On Tuesday, when he was asked at Writers? Buildings whether he would ever quit, he replied that ?the question doesn?t even arise?.

Still, the government has adopted the following measures to curb tobacco consumption in Calcutta and the rest of the state:

4Anti-tobacco campaigns to be strengthened, specially in schools, colleges, railway stations, public places and hospitals

4Agencies and campaigners to be asked to spread the anti-tobacco word at the ground level

4Principals of schools and colleges to be requested to implement anti-smoking campaigns on campus. A proposal has also been sent to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to include chapters on the ill-effects of tobacco in textbooks.

Cigarettes and pan masala (accounting for around 70 per cent of tobacco sales) consumption among teenagers has particularly caught the notice of the authorities.

?In many countries, taxes on cigarettes are so high that people tend to avoid buying them altogether. We must increase taxes on cigarettes,? added Mishra.