No smoking in public places from Oct 2: Ramadoss

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Patna, Jul 11 : Come October 2, smokers will have to take recourse to the streets to have a puff as the Centre has decided to ban smoking in public and private buildings.

Addressing a gathering on World Population Day, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday said smokers will be free to smoke only on roads and streets, not at private and public buildings.

“Smokers can have a puff at the risk of their health in private in their bedrooms provided they had the permission of their wives,” Ramadoss said, adding that smoking in public and private buildings would be banned from October two.

Asked about the Centre not giving sanction to the state government to open three medical colleges for which the Bihar health minister N K Yadav made a fervent appeal, Ramadoss said that a team of Medical Council of India (MCI) visited the state recently and found that infrastructure provided by the state government for opening the medical colleges was not up to the mark .

A central team was then dispatched to make on the spot survey of the sites earmarked for opening of new medical colleges and the central team too found that the infrastructure provided by the state government was not up to the mark and hence the medical colleges were not sanctioned.

He, however, said that the Centre would relax the existing rules and regulations for setting up medical colleges and nursing institutions in the next two to three months.