Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said that banning the sale of tobacco and alcohol in the state is not a solution to curtail smoking or consumption of alcohol.
Speaking at the launch of the lung health programme at the Shantabai Devarao Shivram Tuberculosis Research Centre and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, Siddaramaiah said that though smoking and consumption of alcohol is the cause to many health problems, banning them would only increase illegal activities.
"Though there is total prohibition in Gujarat, people living there still consume alcohol. Even here in Karnataka in the past when I was the excise minister, I had banned sale of alcohol in a few places, but this led to bootlegging," said Siddaramaiah.
He said that he was an active smoker in his younger days as well, but gave up the habit years ago and that only awareness can make people quit these habits.
The chief minister also said that to make healthcare affordable to the poor, a number of measures are being planned by his government, including providing free health insurance for the poor.
"We would build one dialysis centre in one taluk of every district in the state. Besides, we are planning to setup generic medicine centres in 176 taluks and trauma centres at Mysore and Gulbarga," he said.
Siddaramaiah also inaugurated state-of-the-art facilities at Shantabai Devarao Shivram Tuberculosis Research Centre and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases on the occasion.
Dr Shashidhar Buggi, director of the institute, said that the lung health programme launched on Wednesday is for the prevention of chronic lung diseases, early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from lung diseases. He added that this programme will also help in conducting research activities in the field of respiratory diseases.
The programme has also been linked to the hospital website and online appointments can be made by patients.
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