Guwahati, July 21: The Assam government seems to have stirred a hornet’s nest by banning only smokeless tobacco products in the state, as paan shop owners here are now demanding a similar ban on smoking products and alcoholic beverages.

The Assembly passed the Assam Health (Prohibition of Manufacturing, Advertisement, Trade, Storage, Distribution, Sale and Consumption of Zarda, Gutkha, Panmasala, etc, containing Tobacco) Bill, 2013, on Friday and the legislation will come into effect after publication of a gazette notification following the governor’s assent.

The traders, who will lose a bulk of their business once the ban is enforced, today decided to launch a statewide agitation in protest against the move and to press for the ban on other “addictive” products.

They decided this during an executive meeting of the Greater Guwahati Paan Shop Business Association held today at Paltan Bazar here.

The association’s adviser, Prantosh Roy, told The Telegraph, “It was decided in today’s meeting that we, along with other paan shop owners’ associations of the state, will launch an agitation seeking a ban on smoking products and alcoholic drinks and to make Assam addiction-free.”

He said they were in touch with their fellow traders in other parts of the state and would announce their protest programme on Tuesday.

The association has more than 7,000 members, while there are over one lakh paan shop owners across the state.

Assam health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had told the Assembly on Friday that the main objective of the ban was to improve public health by preventing incidence of cancer and other maladies and reduce addiction among the state’s people. He said the ban should bring down the number of oral cancer patients in the state.

The traders, however, are of the opinion that banning only smokeless tobacco will not serve the purpose if smoking tobacco and alcohol continues to be sold in the state.

“We want an addiction-free Assam. Our demand is that the government should also ban smoking tobacco as well as alcohol because everybody knows that cigarettes are one of the leading causes of cancer and alcoholism has ruined many families,” Roy said. “Even the labels of these products carry warnings like ‘Smoking kills’ and ‘Alcohol consumption is injurious to health’.”

Roy said by banning only smokeless tobacco, the state government had targeted only poor small-time traders and vendors who somehow sustained their families through their paan shops and had exempted big businessmen involved in trade and distribution of cigarettes and liquor.

“The ban on smokeless tobacco products will threaten the livelihood of around one lakh paan shop owners in the state. We cannot accept that,” Roy said.

Even during the discussion on the bill in the Assembly on Friday, AGP legislator Phani Bhusan Choudhury had sought a ban on smoking tobacco but the health minister said the government would consider this at a later stage.

Assam Health Act 2013 says

Whoever commits an offence such as manufacturing, advertisement, storage, trade and distribution of smokeless tobacco products shall be punished with imprisonment for up
to seven years and fined not less than Rs 1 lakh and which may go up to Rs 5 lakh

Anyone found consuming smokeless tobacco shall be punished with fine up
to Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for the second and any subsequent offences

A company trading in smokeless tobacco products as well as every person in charge of its conduct of business shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly