Total ban
on public smoking from 2 October
NEW DELHI/PATNA, July 11:
Smoking in public and private buildings across the country will be “completely
banned’ from 2 October, according to a release issued by the Union ministry
of health and family welfare here today.
From 2 October smoking will
not be allowed anywhere “except in selected open spaces like on roads and
in parks and nowhere else”, the Union health minister, Dr Ambumani Ramadoss,
also announced while addressing the media in Patna after inaugurating a
day-long seminar to mark ‘World Population Day’.
The ban will be enforced
in clubs, restaurants, shopping malls, movie theatres and even inside individual
homes, he added. The concerned Act, he warned, has been made more stringent
and violators will be strictly punishable under the IPC.
"Smokers can have a puff
at the risk of their health in private, in their bedrooms, provided they
have the permission of their wives," Ramadoss said.
India is among 67 countries
in the world to have imposed total or partial bans on smoking in public
due to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke on the health and environment,
but the inclusion of private buildings within its purview is a rarity.
Quoting latest data from
his ministry, Dr Ramadoss said while smokers in the West, including USA,
UK, Australia and France, had reduced by more than 25 per cent during the
last couple of years, in India the number, unfortunately, had gone up by
about 20 per cent a year. The government, he said, had no option but to
make legislation against smoking more stringent.
Referring to the dangers
of smoking and chewing of tobacco, Dr Ramadoss said in order to effectively
impose the nationwide ban the Centre had allocated Rs 500 crore during
the current fiscal under the National Anti-Tobacco Mission. n SNS
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