Law to regulate hookah bars soon: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara
Parameshwara said the new law would be drafted in consultation with the health and family welfare, home, and other departments.
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Parameshwara said the new legislation to curb hookah bars along the lines of other states that have already banned them. (Photo/TWITTER/@DrParameshwara))The Karnataka government will soon introduce a law to regulate hookah bars in the state, Home Minister G Parameshwara said Tuesday.
He was responding to a question by BJP MLA C K Ramamurthy during the Winter Session of the Legislative Assembly in Belagavi on the number of hookah bars in Bengaluru and whether they were operating illegally in the state. “The government will initiate stringent measures to curb hookah bars and the sale of other narcotic substances. The number of hookah bars in the state has increased over the years,” the minister said.
Hookahs are water pipes used to smoke specially-made tobacco mixtures that come in various flavours.
Parameshwara said the new legislation to curb hookah bars along the lines of other states that have already banned them would be drafted in consultation with the health and family welfare, home, and other departments.
According to the data tabled in the Assembly, more than 100 cases were filed against hookah bars in the last four years — 18 in 2020, 25 in 2021, 38 in 2022 and 25 in 2023.
Commenting on trade licences issued to such establishments, Parameshwara said neither the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) nor the police department issued licences to hookah bars. But, like cafes, they run the bars after getting permission from India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority.
“Even the court has said they (hookah bars) do not require permission,” he said, quoting a Karnataka High Court order which directed such bars to “earmark exclusively a separate area/place(s)” for smoking hookah.
Following the fire incident at a hookah bar at Bengaluru’s Koramangala in October, the state government has been taking strict action. “It is necessary to regulate them. We will bring a law in consultation with other departments,” Parameshwara added.
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