Do not be surprised if you spot a BEST bus with an anti-tobacco message and another one advertising pan masala or khaini. While buses continue to advertise tobacco products, the BEST has joined hands with Tata Memorial Hospital and launched a campaign wherein anti-tobacco messages will be put up on panels of 200 buses.
The BEST has extended its support to the initiative, which is an extension of the recent campaign by the Food
and Drug Administration ( FDA), Salaam Bombay Foundation and Tata Memorial Hospital to make schools and colleges in the state tobacco-free by January 25.
OP Gupta, general manager of BEST, said the advertising on the buses works on contract basis. "We have the right to reserve a certain number of buses to use for public causes. The 200 buses with anti-tobacco messages will ply on all the major routes from 25 depots, including Navi Mumbai. However, the panels of rest of the buses are not under us," he said.
Explaining the problem, Devika Chadha from Salaam Bombay foundation, which has been working against tobacco, says that the BEST has subletted the contract to an advertising agency and has no hold over what goes on the panels. "The buses have advertisements of pan masala and khaini products, which are actually surrogate ads," she said, adding that the foundation is in talks with the agency to get these ads removed from the buses.
For the past six months, Tata Memorial Hospital has been conducting anti-tobacco workshops with BEST employees in various bus depots across the city.
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