‘Arecanut will not be banned’

December 17, 2013 02:38 pm | Updated May 26, 2016 09:06 am IST - MANGALORE

Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T. Khader said here on Monday that the Centre would not ban consumption of arecanut.

Though the Opposition party had said that an affidavit had been filed seeking a ban on arecanut in the Supreme Court, the Centre had filed no such affidavit, he said.

Quoting a report of Cancer Biology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, JNU, the Minister said it evaluated the carcinogenicity of different arecanut preparations in mice and found that boiled, dried and processed arecanut is not harmful for consumption and does not contain any carcinogens.

He forwarded a representation he received from Sachin Meega, vice-president, Kisan-Khet Mazdoor Congress Cell, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, requesting an intervention in the matter of “halting adverse propaganda and disinformation campaign against arecanut consumption”.

A release quoted the request as saying that arecanut is consumed by all people across class, caste, religion, age and gender and that Karnataka produces a large amount of arecanut. Mr. Khader said, “We are not against areca and we will not be against areca.”

Mr. Khader favoured sale of “good quality gutkha”. He said he was against bad quality gutkha and that good quality gutkha “as made in the olden days” was all right. Adding nicotine, chemicals and gutkha to inferior quality arecanut “from Bangladesh” was bad and gutkha manufacturers were making a mockery of the ban on gutkha by making “tobacco-free pan masala” comprising two packets, allowing consumers to continue eating gutkha, he lamented.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.