There will be no smoke, no fire in the hookah bars of Punjab. The Punjab Government is all set to impose a permanent ban on hookah bars across the State instead of issuing temporary orders against them every two months.
Punjab will be the second State in the country, after Gujarat, to take the significant decision. Gujarat has banned Hookah bars in the State by passing the COTPA Amendment Bill, 2017, banning hookah bars and it attracts a maximum jail term of three years.
The Cabinet, in its meeting on Monday under the chairmanship of Chif Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, has approved an amendment to ‘The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA 2003), for the prevention and control of diseases caused by the use of tobacco products.
The proposed amendment will be placed before the Vidhan Sabha and, after being passed by the House, will be reserved for the assent of the President. The move, aimed at reducing the trend of hookah bars, besides use of tobacco in various forms amongst the youngsters, would result in a complete ban on running of Hookah bars in the State.
Under the present scheme of things, Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is promulgated against Hookah bars in all the districts of the State for two months, with extension required at the end of the period. The extension orders are issued every two months by the concerned District Administration, providing a temporary solution to the menace of hookah bars, which encourage use of tobacco among youngsters, leading to potential health hazards.
As per available data, an hour’s average of hookah smoking contains 20-200 puffs which can deliver 50 litres — about 13 gallons — of smoke, containing harmful and carcinogenic chemicals.
Health risks of smoking Hookah includes exposure to toxic chemicals that are not filtered out by the water, and also risk of infectious disease like Tuberculosis resulting from sharing of Hookah. The Hookah tobacco addiction often ends up becoming a trigger for other drug addiction.
In the last few months, the State Government had carried out raids at hookah bars in Jalandhar, Amritsar, Nayagaon and Dhakoli in Mohali district from where the collected samples had tested positive for nicotine.
Earlier, the Health Department had sought legal advice from the Law Department in this regard.