University of Dhaka has stopped the BATB-sponsored road show “Battle of Mind” scheduled to hold tomorrow following the appeal of Dhaka Ahsania Mission and other anti-tobacco activist organizations. The anti-tobacco delegates made their urge to the vice chancellor of University of Dhaka on Sunday.

The anti-tobacco activist said, with the excuse of job placement, the multinational, death-selling company, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) has started their annual “Battle of Mind” competition.

Their representative “Exceed Campus Ambassadors” are been selected from different public and privet universities since early July. These Ambassadors have started “Battle of Mind 2019” road shows in different universities through career clubs. The slogan for this year’s campaign is “Change the Game”.

Dhaka Ahsania Mission and other anti-tobacco activist organizations such as PROGGA, National Heard Foundation, etc took the initiative to stop the event at the university. Representatives from the organizations have met with the Vice Chancellor Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, Pro-VC Professor Muhammad Samad and contact by over phone to Dean of the Business Education department - Professor Shibly Rubaiyatul Islam.

The team demanded the road show to be stopped. Vice-chancellor, Pro- Vice-chancellor, and Dean assured them that the event will not be happening tomorrow. They also guaranteed that such events will not take place at the university campus in future. The anti-tobacco team given thanks to Vice Chancellor and Pro-VC for their initiative.  Moreover, August 29, to stop battle of mind DAM and protyasha sent a letter to Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University.

BATB has been organizing these events since 2004, and they invest a lot of money in the name of job placement. However, the data shows that although more than 30,000 students took part in the competition in last 16 years, but only about 100 have been recruited through these events.

Sponsorship of a tobacco company to organize and award any competitive events is prohibited according to the Section 5(C) of Bangladesh Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) (Amendment) Act 2013; obstruction of which is punishable either by fining 1, 00,000 Tk or imprisonment for three months or both. Such initiatives from BATB conflicts with achieving the “Tobacco-Free Bangladesh by 2040” that our Honorable Prime Minister declared.

BK