Mysuru: Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organised a campaign against chewing of tobacco in association with Gopalaswamy Shishushikshana Kendra here on Monday July 20.

Students of the college took out a procession from the college premises to Lakshmipuram post office. They wrote a letter to the Chief Minister demanding him to take action and ban chewing tobacco in the state.

Before this, addressing the students, ABVP block organising secretary Vinay Bidare said, “With an intention of ensuring tobacco free campus’ and thus tobacco free colleges in the country, ABVP has taken this campaign. Tobacco has been banned in 15 states in the country, thus we students thought we could a write letter requesting the CM to ban tobacco in Karnataka also.”

“Around 1.50 crore people are dying of tobacco addiction and among them, 10 lakh are dying of chewing tobacco. The country will get a profit of 9,000 crores from exporting tobacco products every year but spending 30,000 crores for treating cancer diseases (tobacco caused)” he detailed.

Youth joining the Army from Punjab has decreased by 50 percent. It was 70 percent but now it is 20 percent only. We Mysureans are in a geographically safe area, unlike in Punjab where they are constantly at war, he regretted.

District Convener of ABVP Manjunath, District head Ramesh, District Organising Secretary Anand Begur, City Organising Secretary Kiran Kumar, college staff and others were present.