Lucknow Metro seized 20 kg tobacco on Day 1; wall defaced with pan masala stains

On its very first commercial run, the newly-launched Lucknow Metro seized around 20 Kg of tobacco products such as pan masala and ghutka.

Apart from tobacco, cigarettes and bidis were also seized from passengers who had come to board the metro. Commuters chewing pan masala were asked to spit it before entering the station.

"Out of eight operational Metro stations, maximum pan masala packets, weighing 6kg, were seized at Charbagh Metro station, followed by Transport Nagar Metro station where items weighing 4kg were confiscated," TOI reported.

Dilip Singh Pawar, chief security officer of eight Metro stations, told TOI, on an average, three out of five persons arriving at the stations either had tobacco packets or were chewing tobacco. "This was because most of the people were not aware that tobacco products are not allowed inside Metro. However, most of them were cooperative and readily gave away the items."

"I'm happy that people of Lucknow are cooperative. We faced this problem because most of them were unaware about ban on tobacco products. At our end, we are making efforts to tell people about dos and don'ts in Metro. All efforts will be made from our end to keep the public transport clean and comfortable," the report quoted Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation managing director Kumar Keshav as saying.

Meanwhile, a report by inUth said that Alambagh station of the Lucknow Metro was defaced with paan and gutka stains.