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“Many misleading statements were again made by the Health Minister to justify the ban. He however conceded multiple times that ‘less harmful does not mean harmless’ which brings up the question he did not answer: Why ban what could arguably be less harmful E-cigarettes when Cigarettes and Bidis etc are regulated?”
healthy soch
New Delhi, November 27, 2019:
Quote from Praveen Rikhy, Convenor, TRENDS:
“We are anguished to learn that the Electronic Cigarettes (production, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement) Bill, 2019 has been passed in the Lok Sabha, without considering pros and cons of such a bill and pushed through on basis of Government of the day’s brute majority, ignoring the salient points raised by many members of the House.
It is a tragic day for the country that it has chosen not to be counted among the 70 developed and progressive nations but with the 28 regimes that have banned it.
It is unfortunate that a bill which prevents smokers from harm and could have yielded positive benefits to the country’s public health has been imposed on the country based on skewed data and selective research from US, when there is mountains of documented results and studies from countries like the UK, Canada, France etc. which were completely ignored by the Health Ministry
This is an unfortunate day for the health of the nation – today the Lok Sabha gave its stamp of approval to the Dealth Sentence pronounced by the Union Health Minister for millions of Indians, looking to give up smoking and tobacco consumption.
What would have been prudent was that the Bill should have been referred to a select committee of Parliamentarians from all parties, especially since this issue has shockingly not been placed before the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Health.
They need to consult with the experts, hear to the point of view of various stakeholders as well as give due consideration to the hundreds of thousands of suggestions to the Bill received from the public, which has not even received a cursory glance.
However, since the Upper House needs to endorse the bill – we will continue with or efforts to reach information and materials to the Members of Parliament.
There are other countries, like the UAE, that had earlier banned the product category in haste but revoked the ban and implemented a regulatory regime, which is the demand of the industry in India as well.”
healthysoch
