DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Amidst the ongoing campaign to make Punjab a tobacco free state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh said that the state of Punjab has done exemplary work in tobacco control including recent ban on hookah bars in the state.

Dr Balbir Singh was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the three-day National Workshop on 'Implementation of WHO-MPOWER and Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Article 5.3' organised by the Resource Centre for Tobacco Control (RCTC), Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER Chandigarh, and supported by Vital Strategies. At leat 35 delegates from 12 different states are here to participate in this workshop organised at Hotel Mountview here. The Health Minister informed the gathering that Punjab was the first State in the country to constitute an Empowered Committee to implement WHO FCTC Article 5.3. Punjab was also the first state to declare E -Cigarettes as an unapproved drug under Drugs & Cosmetics Act, he added.

He said that in the state, a total of 865 villages have declared themselves tobacco free villages after passing the resolution by Panchayats. Dr Balbir Singh congratulated the RCTC team for their leadership in tobacco control since 2018 and for organising this crucial workshop. He also released the 29th edition of the Tobacco-Free Times, a theme-based newsletter of RCTC, which has compiled best practices of digital interventions in tobacco control in the country.
(editor@dailyworld.in)