LS members question efficacy of bill to ban e-cigarette

Members from different parties, including the ruling BJP, raised questions in the Lok Sabha over a bill that the government has brought to ban production, import and sale of electronic cigarettes.

BJP's Nishikant Dubey said he saw in Singapore people using e-cigarettes everywhere despite the country being one of the more developed nations in the world as he wondered how the move will be able to ban the product in India which also borders many countries.

BJD's Anubhav Mohanty echoed similar concern and asked as to how the government will be able to monitor it.

K Sudhakaran of the Congress called the bill "hasty" and cited studies to say that vaporisers are "95 per cent less harmful" than conventional cigarettes.

B Mahtab of the BJD expressed his concern over the "draconian" powers given to authorities to search any premise on mere suspicion.

The Lok Sabha later passed the bill, which will now be taken up in the Rajya Sabha before it becomes a law.

The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, 2019, seeks to replace an ordinance issued on September 18.