Ludhiana, March 20, 2025 (Yes Punjab News)
Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Balbir Singh on Thursday announced to ban energy drinks in schools and colleges across the state soon. This move aims to promote healthy eating habits and eliminate lifestyle disorders among youngsters. The ban will also prohibit the sale of energy drinks within a 500-meter radius of schools and colleges.¹
While inaugurating Eat Right Mela to spread awareness towards healthy eating habits and eliminate lifestyle disorders, The Minister along with Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, Dr. Singh emphasized the negative impact of energy drinks on young people’s health, citing their prevalence in school and college canteens, as well as hospitals.
To ensure compliance, health teams will conduct regular checks on canteens, and shopkeepers are urged not to display advertisements for energy drinks. Instead, he encouraged canteens to offer healthier alternatives like lassi, lemon water, fresh juice, and millet-based products.
The Minister highlighted the importance of millet and organic food production for maintaining soil quality and promoting overall well-being. He added that practicing natural and millet farming was required to maintain the quality of soil.
He also said that the people have completely forgotten about coarse grains, which mainly includes bajra, kangani, kodra, jowar, saanwan and ragi, whereas their consumption is important for good physical and mental well-being. He added that producing coarse grains not only saves water but is healthy for the body too.
The Minister said that today there was a need to spread awareness about the benefits of coarse grains rich in nutrients and create an environment to promote its production.
However, he also sought help of the Asha and Anganwari Workers in eliminating drugs menace.
Conducting the Eat Right Mela to make people aware of the benefits of coarse grain is a commendable initiative; MP Rajya Sabha Sanjeev Arora said and added this awareness drive would go a long way to make people healthy.
The Minister also appealed to the people to avail the benefit of food safety van to check adulteration in food, milk and other beverages products in the district.
Earlier, a Walkathon was also organized to sensitize the people about good eating habits and importance of millets.
Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Director Food lab Kharar, Dr Ravneet Kaur, Joint Commissioner Food Safety Dr Amit Joshi, Civil Surgeon Dr. Ramandeep Kaur Ahluwalia, District Health Officer Dr. Amarjeet Kaur, and others.
