New Delhi, Jan. 28: King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, who has ruled Bhutan for over three decades, seems to have become one of the early casualties of his country?s path-breaking legislation banning smoking in public.

?The ban has already forced me to cut down on my smoking and now I am even thinking of giving it up altogether,? the king said.

Bhutan passed a law last month that bans smoking in public places in the entire country. Though people can still bring in cigarettes to Bhutan, they will have to pay a 200 per cent duty on every packet that they bring and can only smoke within the confines of their homes or hotel rooms.

The king, who is known to be a cigar smoker, does not want to divulge whether he occasionally also smokes cigarettes or how many in a day he smokes. ?These are details which I am not going to share with you,? Wangchuk said. But he was quick to point out that the ban on smoking was part of the process to decentralise power that he had initiated more than a decade back.

?The ban started from district committees which passed laws banning smoking in their areas. Later, it was picked up by others and finally a countrywide ban was passed in the National Assembly,? he said.

The king, who was invited to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations, was candid in expressing views on issues within Bhutan and in the neighbourhood while talking to journalists at Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening at the end of his six-day state visit.

A new Constitution for the country, for which Wangchuk had taken the initiative, will be placed before the people next March for a debate. After the draft is approved through a referendum, Bhutan will get a new constitution.

But he is also aware that the process he has started may well eat significantly into the powers and privileges that he and his family have enjoyed in the past. ?I can?t give you details of what all there is in the new Constitution but it will have many interesting points and will also assign the king specific duties,? he said. ?You cannot have a monarch just because in the past there have been kings in the country.?

Wangchuk was also frank in his observation about Nepal, especially the threat posed by the Maoist rebels there. He observed that the threat posed by the Maoists in Nepal was becoming serious and warned that unless dealt with effectively and resolved at the earliest, it will have a negative impact in the neighbourhood as well.

?We sincerely hope that something positive will come out soon and some initiatives will be taken by the political parties in Nepal to resolve the Maoist problem,? he said. But when asked whether Nepal should follow Bhutan?s example of launching a major military offensive to defeat the Maoists, the king made it clear that he was in no position to recommend what is best for Nepal.