Rulings

The notification will come into effect from Dec. 1 this year.

New pictorial warnings
The notification makes it mandatory to print pictorial warnings on the cigarette, bidi, and cigar packaging. The smokeless and chewable tobacco products including Gutka also come under the purview of the notification.

Come May 1, and you will be responsible for the seedy plastic bag flapping in front of you. The Punjab government has become really serious about implementing the Plastic Bags Control Act.

Polythene bags to blame
The ban on polythene bags in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh has improved the environment, and the Punjab government believes that they should do the same.

The government spokesman said that polythene bags were the cause of so many societal problems. They are blocking the sewers; animals are dying after eating them; and they are non-biodegradable.

Aruna Shanbaug is a 60-year-old nurse who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the last 37 years in a Mumbai hospital after a brutal sexual assault on her in 1973.

In a vegetative state, the patient remains awake but not conscious of his surroundings.

Mercy killing debate
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court dismissed the mercy killing petition of Aruna Shanbaug, which was filed by Aruna’s friend and social activist, Pinki Virani.