
The Chandigarh administration banned hookah bars for sixty days in the Union Territory, on Monday.
The decision came in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of the spread of coronavirus because of using common hookahs, besides the adverse affect of narcotic chemicals on the health of people, the district officials said.
“Whereas, it has been made to appear to me that hookah bars are operational in Chandigarh in a clandestine way, which are serving flavoured hookahs, including tobacco molasses containing nicotine, which is highly injurious to the health of people and at times there is a suspicion that apart from tobacco, other harmful narcotic chemicals are also mixed with tobacco molasses served in these hookah bars,” read the order issued by the Deputy Commissioner.
The DC said, “The hookah in many of these bars are being smoked and consumed by the customers through a common bowl, pipe and a hose having one mouth piece, which is susceptible to physical mouth-to-mouth touch of many persons, thus, posing danger to human life, health and safety by becoming a cause of, as well as leading to, the transmission and spread of Covid-19 in Chandigarh.”
The order further said that, “I, Mandip Singh Brar, IAS, District Magistrate, Chandigarh, exercising the power vested upon me under the Section 144 of the CrPC, hereby order that hookah shall not be served for smoke/consumption in hotels, restaurants, taverns, bars, hookah bars etc. The hookah bars are thus banned to operate in Chandigarh with respect to their offering hookahs to the visitors. This order will come into force from zero hours on December 14 and shall be effective for a period of sixty days up to and including February 11, 2021.”