Parliament premises tobacco free area

The Parliament premises inside Singha Durbar has been declared tobacco-free area with effect from Monday.

According to the state run National News Agency, Speaker Subash Nemwang made this announcement at the meeting of the House of Representatives on Monday.

Earlier, the meeting had approved unanimously the proposal tabled by Chief Whip of CPN-UML Mahendra Bahadur Pandey to direct the government for ratification of the World Health Organization's Anti-Tobacco Convention.

During deliberations on the proposal, the members of parliament had called for making a beginning of developing the culture of prohibiting tobacco consumption from the parliament itself, putting a ban on advertisement of such products and generating public awareness against it in the rural areas.

Responding to queries raised during the deliberations, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population, Amik Sherchan, said in order to discourage tobacco consumption which is on the rise in the country, hoarding boards publicizing tobacco products would be removed, publicity in the media would be stopped and anti-tobacco campaign would be launched in the electronic media.

He also disclosed that the Cabinet meeting last month had decided to ratify the Convention and notified about it to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, which has already tabled it at the Parliament Secretariat. nepalnews.com pb Aug 01 06