Smoking in public places!
The BSS report published in most dailies on 28th November, suggesting the fine for smoking in public places to be raised from Tk.50 to Tk.10000, seems absurdly high! A rational figure could be Tk.500 for first offence, and for subsequent offence, say Tk.1000 may be a reasonable figure!
Alternatively, two days simple imprisonment without diet for the first time, and five days for the second time should be included. The diet should be the prisoner's responsibility, not the jail authorities', wherever the offender may be imprisoned. However, the effectiveness of this measure will depend on effective implementation. To encourage this, I would suggest, that 10 percent of the fine collected be given to the policemen who catches the offender. In this way, there will be some incentive for the policemen. The complicated way of collecting fines is discouraging, otherwise, even at Tk.50 per head they should easily collect minimum, say Tk.25,000/- daily in some areas in Dhaka alone!
With incentive in place, and a simple receipt book to collect the fine, I believe that all over Bangladesh the fine collected will be at least a few lac taka daily. I would urge the government to consider the proposal and implement it, and earn some miscellaneous revenue too!
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