Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Restaurant owners has declared their establishments smoke-free aiming to protect environment.
"From now on, all of our restaurants will be smoking free," President of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association Kamar Uddin Ahmed Khokon said announcing their decision at an anti-tobacco seminar at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka on Saturday.
He expressed the hope that the decision would be followed by over 55,000 restaurant owners across the country.
The announcement came as the proposed budget suggested enhanced tax on tobacco as part of the nationwide anti-tobacco campaign.
According to an existing law, smoking in "public places" is prohibited but restaurant owners, anti-tobacco campaigners and law enforcement agencies said the law did not clearly define if restaurants were public places, making it complicated to legally ban the smoking inside the eating places.
Bangladesh for the first time enacted an anti-tobacco law in 2005 which bans smoking in public places, but surprisingly has not recognized restaurants as public place.
Mentioning that restaurants are globally recognized as public place, the association had been requesting the government to include restaurants as a public place in the law, an association leader said.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan, MP, who joined the seminar, said the government would issue an ordinance within a month to declare restaurants as tobacco-free public places to make the ban effective.
The seminar was jointly organized by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association with DAM President Kazi Rafiqul Alam in the chair.
BBN/SI/AD-09June12-9:15 pm (BST)
