Siliguri, June 1: The WHO and the Union health ministry will launch a pilot project in Cooch Behar and Murshidabad districts of Bengal as part of their nationwide programme to curb the use of tobacco.

The plan under the National Tobacco Control Programme involves the setting up of counselling centres at the district level, where experts will advise people on how to kick the habit of smoking. These centres will be located at the district hospitals, from where teams of experts will fan out to various blocks.

“The programme is in its initial stages. Two districts in Bengal — Cooch Behar and Murshidabad — have been selected for pilot projects,” said Satyaban Ghosh, assistant director of health services (oncology), when contacted in Calcutta

“These two districts have been chosen apparently because of the fairly high incidence of upper respiratory tract and lung cancers, mostly caused by tobacco use. Murshidabad is also known for its high levels of bidi production and consumption,” Ghosh said.

The WHO and the Centre are funding the project. It entails the involvement of the chief medical officers of health of each district, with the deputy chief medical officers of health II executing the project, Ghosh said.

“Each counselling centre will have a psychologist, a programme officer, a data entry operator and another worker. Counselling will be given for de-addiction, mainly from smoking but also from dangerous habits like ghutka consumption,” the health official said. “The funds have been received, but the appointments are yet to take place. Hopefully, the project will commence within two months.”

Later, school programmes would be tagged on to the project, where the focus will be on preventing the youth from picking up the harmful habits. Surveys have found that as much as 23 per cent of school-going children in Classes VIII-XII are habituated to tobacco use.

“The role of the WHO will be to provide technical assistance to the Bengal government in carrying out the control programmes,” said Sachidanand Sahoo, a consultant with the WHO, who will be arriving in Cooch Behar tomorrow to carry out project-related work.

With the Union health minister announcing that smoking would be banned in public places like restaurants and bars from October 2, the need to give up the habit may become all the more necessary. The announcement was made in Delhi on World No Tobacco Day yesterday.