Guwahati, March 5 - Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Tuesday asked the state's health ministry to table a bill in the assembly banning all kinds of tobacco products including smokeless tobacco.
Earlier, the state health minister had told media that the Assam government felt it necessary to ban all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco products, and said that a legislation would be tabled in the assembly soon.
Gogoi's instruction assumes significance as oral cancer is on the rise in the state and is caused mainly due to consumption of tobacco products. Experts are of the opinion that around 80 to 90 per cent of oral cancer cases, particularly in the northeast are associated with tobacco use.
Gogoi had recently launched a campaign in the northeast to make the region tobacco-free and said that his government would issue a circular to the education and the health departments for initiating strict action against any official and school teacher who consumes tobacco and tobacco-related products.
Defiance of the circular may result in forced voluntary retirement of the said official or teacher, he had said.
