Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is preparing to completely ban the sale of tobacco products in all its 32 wards from December 13, 2023.
KMC Health Department Chief Ram Prasad Poudel said the selling, storage and use of tobacco products packaged in plastic will be fully prohibited in all 32 wards of the metropolis from December 13.
According to him, all tobacco products such as cigarettes, beedi, tamakhu, sulfa, raw tobacco packaged in plastic, chewing tobacco, gutkha, pan parag and others will be banned.
It is said Metropolitan City Police will seize such products if found selling them. “We are on a campaign to make Kathmandu a healthy city. We have decided to ban the storage, selling and use of tobacco-based products harmful to people’s health and the environment, coinciding with the 29th KMC Day,” said the KMC Health Department Chief Poudel.
He said this provision is included in Clause 42 of the Public Health Act the KMC issued in 2080 BS. The provision in the Act is being strictly implemented in a bid to reduce the adverse effects the use of tobacco products is having on individual health.
Tobacco control is the first condition for improving the public health and environment in the city. It is said KMC is preparing to implement a programme to control ‘hukka’ in the second phase.
