NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 13: Bowing to pressure from the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), the Union Ministry for Health has decided to lift the ban on sale of non-iodised salt in the country. A Government notification is expected to be issued tomorrow.For the record, Ministry officials claim to have based their decision on over 5000 petitions received from people, the opinion of the scientific community expressed at seminars and business houses and the feedback from health ministers of various states.But what about prevention of goitre caused due to iodine deficiency? Ministry officials say there are different modes of administering iodine and iodised salt was only one of them. ``Anyway goitre is found only in thehills and foothills,'' an official claimed.The Manch had opposed compulsory sale of iodised salt because at Rs 6 a kg it was too expensive for the poor compared to ordinary salt which costs less than Re 1 per kg. SJM leaders had alleged that multinational companies, which have a major share in the Rs 2500-crore annual business, were behind the ban imposed by the Centre in May 1998.The SJM had planned a reverse ``Dandi March'' - from Dandi to Sabarmati in Gujarat - from October 2, in protest against the ban. It had also decided to make non-iodised salt there and sell it in Delhi in violation of the ban.The very fact that the ban is being lifted despite opposition from a big section of the scientific community and by over 60 per cent of state health ministers, including that of the major salt producing state of BJP-ruled Gujarat, shows that the Government acted under the SJM's pressure.The decision is another chapter in the blow-hot-blow-cold relations between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Sangh Parivar. The SJM has described it as ``people's victory''. A SJM leader said ``no one can be forced to consume expensive iodised salt produced by multinational companies.''Ministry officials, however, say the basic criterion for lifting the ban was the argument by Kerala health minister that ``you can't force anyone to eat as per your specifications. A man from Punjab can't be pressured to eat only idlis. It is a highly emotional issue.''Despite removal of the ban, non-iodised salt can't yet be sold openly due to a similar ban imposed by over 25 states by amending Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act 1954. ``It's up to the various states governments to allow sale of non-iodised salt in their territory,'' ministry officials states.Besides Gujarat, among the states which opposed lifting of the ban was West Bengal while Kerala and Rajasthan favoured sale of non-iodised salt at Union Health Minister C.P. Thakur's meeting with state health ministers here on August 31.
