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• Minister asks why hookah parlours still open, BMC vows to enforce ban 

Eight months after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation banned hookah bars, the matter of enforcing them cropped up again on Monday, at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, answering a query, said hookah parlours were illegal and those running should be closed down.

After the BMC ban, 30 hookah hubs in the city had been shut down because of action from the civic body, but 26 still manage to function. Answering a query on hookah parlours openly violating the ban, Ramadoss said, "Hookah parlours in any form are illegal and should be banned. According to the law, hookah bars are banned, along with cigarettes. Why are they still open? We will help the BMC to shut down all the hookah parlours."

As per estimates from the BMC's health department, there were 59 hookah bars in the city of which three were shut down when mayor Shubha Raul started her drive. . . .

Dr Prakash Gupta, Director, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, and president of the 14th WCTOH, said, "The law clearly states that there should be an enclosed room where there should be no food and beverage servings."

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