The Haryana Government on Monday passed a bill to prohibit hookah bars

Hookah bars ban in Haryana: The Haryana Government on Monday passed a bill to prohibit hookah bars in the state assembly. Haryana's Home minister Anil Vij, who introduced the bill in House, said it clearly stated that hookah bar meant a commercial establishment where people gather to smoke tobacco from a hookah or narghile.

On the other hand, Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary objected to the bill and said that it was not clear in the proposed law as to what is meant by a traditional hookah as it has not been defined in the bill. He further said this will give violators an advantage as they will use the traditional hookah with toxic and harmful substances, thereby, defeating the objective of this proposed law.

Likewise, Congress MLA from Rohtak Bharat Bhushan Batra agrred with what Chaudhary said and added that the traditional hookah should be clearly defined in the bill.

As per the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the state government took a serious note that hookah bars were serving hookah narghile with tobacco that contain nicotine in various Haryana districts. Nicotine is highly injurious to health of the public at large. 

“Various flavours and herbs are also served by hookah bars. Many a times, even banned drugs are served in the said hookah bars under the guise of flavours or herbs. Such hookah involves water pipe system and flavoured constituent shisha, heated with charcoal. Due to the misconception of less or no risk associated with it and availability of multiple flavours and less harshness of smoke its usage has increased significantly. However, smoke of such flavoured hookah contains various toxicants, which are not only harmful for the person smoking but also those nearby due to passive smoking,” the bill stated. 

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