SMOKERS in New Delhi look over their shoulders before lighting up in public, hoping an army of civil servants authorised to enforce the city's recent ban on smoking is not looking, reports Rahul Bedi.
Cigarettes, however, continue to be sold but ashtrays have been removed in restaurants, bars, hotels and public buildings and no smoking signs are appearing.
Delhi's health minister has banned "tobacco consumption" in all forms, including the traditional kookah, or hubble bubble, and beedis, the poor man's tobacco rolled into a leaf, at all places of work and public use.
He has also authorised all mid level civil servants, restaurant and cinema managers, and all public vehicle drivers, to enforce the ban and bring defaulters to court.
The fine is 100 rupees (£1.80) for a first offence. Recidivists will have to pay 500 rupees (£9) each time. So far, no one has been fined.
Meanwhile, the traffic in smokers and tipplers between Delhi and the neighbouring "dry" state of Harayana has increased.
The tobacco ban, however, has come as a boon for some. Manufacturers of a herbal cigarette have been distributing their product free, trying to lure people onto their "health" smoke marketed under the slogan: Quit tobacco, love smoke. Most Delhites dismiss the ban as a doomed, vote getting, gimmick by desperate politicians.