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Here are some solutions to tackle illegal smoking

The more the public gets a reply like “19,000 tickets issued last year for illegal smoking” (July 13), the more they would believe that the enforcement of our laws on illegal smoking, including underage smoking, is failing.

The more the public gets a reply like “19,000 tickets issued last year for illegal smoking” (July 13), the more they would believe that the enforcement of our laws on illegal smoking, including underage smoking, is failing.

The National Environment Agency states that its officers patrol hot spots and locations which it receives feedback about and that they also do checks based on other information gathered.

What puzzles me is the failure to provide direct answers to my questions in “NEA’s enforcement of smoking laws leaves much to be desired” (July 10).

The message instead is that the NEA does not have adequate enforcement resources.

Also, the NEA did not inform us of the locations or whether enforcement was successful because of public feedback, versus independent work done.

Not doing all that is possible to win the war against illegal smoking is a problem.

As I see it, the NEA, which is leading this war for all Singaporeans, fails to realise the urgency of winning the war.

Some possible solutions are: Employ more Singaporeans to do enforcement and not wait for feedback; introduce effective shift work; provide officers with vehicles so they do a better job; and ensure that they do surveillance discreetly, and not in NEA attire.

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