UT administration seeks report on hookah bars, samples of flavours sent for tests
Rajinder Nagarkoti | TNN | Updated: Feb 10, 2019, 05:59 IST
They will also take a call on banning hookah bars on February 14. (File photo)CHANDIGARH: The UT administration has sought report on hookah bars from the health department and the UT estate office.
The administration has planned to take a call on banning hookah bars in the city during the Administrator’s Advisory Council (AAC) meeting, which will be held on February 14.
A senior UT official said they had sought details on samples of various hookah flavours collected from the bars in the past and the result of the testing.
“We also want to know about the building bylaws of the premises of the hookah bars,” he said.
The agenda will come up during the AAC meeting on February 14 on the pattern of the Punjab government. More than 10 hookah bars in the city sell flavoured hookah. These outlets are in Sectors 7 and 26, besides the industrial area.
The officials of the UT health department had submitted before the UT administration that smoking hookah was damaging the health of the youth. Over the years, the police and the health department officials have raided many hookah bars in the city and seized drugs that were being served to customers.
In some cases, the teams found traces of nicotine in the samples of hookah tobacco, which is a dangerous combination. Action was also initiated against a few violators, but no decision had come to shut the hookah bars.
Last year, the Punjab government had decided to impose a permanent ban on hookah bars in the state instead of issuing temporary orders against them every two months. The proposed amendment was approved by the state Assembly in March 2018 and later in November 2018 President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to a Bill from Punjab to check use of tobacco.
Punjab is the third state in the country after Gujarat and Maharashtra where hookah bars or lounges have banned through law.
The President had given his assent to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018. The objective of bringing the law was to check use of tobacco.
A hookah is a single or multi-stemmed traditional instrument for smoking tobacco, cannabis or opium.
The administration has planned to take a call on banning hookah bars in the city during the Administrator’s Advisory Council (AAC) meeting, which will be held on February 14.
A senior UT official said they had sought details on samples of various hookah flavours collected from the bars in the past and the result of the testing.
“We also want to know about the building bylaws of the premises of the hookah bars,” he said.
The agenda will come up during the AAC meeting on February 14 on the pattern of the Punjab government. More than 10 hookah bars in the city sell flavoured hookah. These outlets are in Sectors 7 and 26, besides the industrial area.
The officials of the UT health department had submitted before the UT administration that smoking hookah was damaging the health of the youth. Over the years, the police and the health department officials have raided many hookah bars in the city and seized drugs that were being served to customers.
In some cases, the teams found traces of nicotine in the samples of hookah tobacco, which is a dangerous combination. Action was also initiated against a few violators, but no decision had come to shut the hookah bars.
Last year, the Punjab government had decided to impose a permanent ban on hookah bars in the state instead of issuing temporary orders against them every two months. The proposed amendment was approved by the state Assembly in March 2018 and later in November 2018 President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to a Bill from Punjab to check use of tobacco.
Punjab is the third state in the country after Gujarat and Maharashtra where hookah bars or lounges have banned through law.
The President had given his assent to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018. The objective of bringing the law was to check use of tobacco.
A hookah is a single or multi-stemmed traditional instrument for smoking tobacco, cannabis or opium.
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