LS members question efficacy, provisions of bill banning e- cigarettes

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.