Tamil Nadu assembly passes bill to ban hookah bars

CHENNAI: The state assembly on Wednesday passed a bill amending the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) to ban hookah bars in Tamil Nadu as part of efforts to weed out tobacco abuse.
The bill, tabled by the health and family welfare department and passed unanimously, has a clause effecting prohibition of opening or running hookah bars. It says sale and service of hookah at any place including eating house is prohibited and describes the eating house as a place where food or refreshment of any kind is served.
The bill also sought addition of a clause empowering police officers of the rank of sub-inspector and above to seize material and articles from a hookah bar and another punishing violators with imprisonment up to three years and fine up to 50,000.
While health minister Ma Subramanian justified the amendment as hookah bars, whose products have severe health implications, have mushroomed across Chennai, a police officer said it will help crack down on hookah bars effectively as restaurants with such facilities often cite a SC stay order on a similar bill passed in Mumbai municipal corporation to prevent police from taking action against them. The Tamil Nadu People's Forum for Tobacco Control has welcomed the amendment.