Dispatch News.
Raipur. Chhattisgarh Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of Cigarette and other Tobacco Product (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Chhattisgarh Amendment Act-2021 for the effective action against Hookah Bars in the state.
Chhattisgarh Cabinet had on February 8, 2020, decided to impose a ‘total ban’ on hookah bars across the state. The Cabinet had also taken another major decision for closing over 49 foreign liquor shops from the financial year 2020-21. To save youths of Chhattisgarh from this deadly addiction, the Bhupesh Baghel-led Cabinet unanimously had arrived on mutual consent to shut all the hookah bars.
However, the state government would have faced several legal and technical issues in the implementation of their decision for the Hookah bar ban in the state. Therefore, the state government amended the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 or COTPA, 2003.
