India: Anti-smokeless Tobacco Bill Misses House Deadline

Source from:  The Times of India  03/13/2013

The much-hyped anti-smokeless tobacco bill that was expected to be tabled in the ongoing budget session of the legislative assembly has missed the official deadline for placement of bills before the assembly secretariat. The government is now likely to bring in an ordinance to this effect.
 
Parliamentary affairs minister Nilamani Sen Deka said the health department has sent the bill to the legal department for approval from where it has not come back. "The last date for placing the bill to the secretariat was Monday, so it will not be tabled in the current session."
 
The government on March 8 issued a notification banning manufacture, sale, transportation and display of gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine in the state for a year.
 
Health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced last month that the bill would be tabled and had added that if the law is not passed in the budget session, it will be tabled in the next session in July. Around 80 to 90 per cent of oral cancer cases in the state are associated with tobacco abuse.
 
Sarma had claimed that till now no state in the country has enacted any law banning smokeless tobacco products and Assam could be the first state to put a ban on such items. Enditem