Shatrughan Sinha demands ban on tobacco items with liquor

Kisanganj: Senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday sought a ban on consumption of tobacco products along with prohibiting liquor to protect people from dreaded diseases like cancer which a study says would be the greatest killer in the world by 2020.

Sinha was speaking after laying foundation of a cancer awareness, testing and advisory centre at Kisanganj in Bihar.

Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmad Khan and Independent MLC Devesh Chand Thakur along with noted cancer surgeon J K Singh were present on the foundation laying occasion of "Grameen Sneh Foundation".

"Liquor ban in Bihar is highly appreciated. But, if prohibition is extended to tobacco items it would have far more effective impact on human health by preventing dreaded disease like cancer," he said.

Sinha, BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Saheb and who served as union health minister in NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, highlighted ill effects of consumption of tobacco items like cigarrete, khaini and gutka.

A study suggests that by 2020 cancer would be the biggest killer of human being in the world, he said.

Oral cancer is widely prevalent in India and within the country its present in a gigantic magnitude in BIMARU states including Bihar.

Sinha said he would work to open one such centre of cancer by the foundation in near Bakhtiyarpur and Daniyawa in his Patna Saheb Lok Sabha constituency.