Mangaluru: The shops located near schools and colleges will need to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products immediately, as the Mangaluru police are planning to implement Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) more effectively from now on. Action will be taken against such shops even If people complain over WhatsApp.

 Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Hanumantharaya, responding to a complaint by a caller against selling of tobacco products by the shops in the vicinity of the schools and colleges, during the weekly phone-in programme on Friday, June 7, said that people could click the photos of such shops from their mobile phones and send it to the police on WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, members of the public also complained against autorickshaw drivers demanding excess fare from the passengers above the meter charge. Hanumanatharaya asked autorickshaw drivers not to demand excess fare from the passengers and also asked them to display the list of fares in all the autorickshaw points in city.