Parliament passes Iodized Salt bill, 2021

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SANGSAD BHABAN, June 14, 2021 (BSS) – The Iodized Salt Bill, 2021 was passed in the parliament aiming to improve the monitoring and efficacy of the country’s salt iodization program.

Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun today moved the bill to the House which was unanimously passed by voice votes with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

While placing the bill, the industries minister said, “The proposed act will be enacted through annulling the previous “Iodine Deficiency Disease Prevention Act-1989.”

Over the past decades, Bangladesh has done a remarkable job bringing down numbers of once-epidemic goitre and thyroid diseases. In the mid-1990s, around 47% of the population suffered from goitre. Today, that number falls well below 6%, according to the bill.

In order to better regulate and monitor, legislation was introduced in the mid-1990s mandating the use of iodine in the country’s salt supply. On Wednesday, October 7, 2020, Bangladesh’s Cabinet announced that it would be considered an offense for anyone to import, produce, market, or stock salt without registering beforehand.

Before framing the proposed law, opposition lawmakers including Barrister Shamim Haider Patwary, Begum Raushanara Mannan, BNP lawmakers Harunur Rashid, Barrister Rumeen Farhana and Independent lawmaker Rezaul Karim Bablu demanded more public review on the draft law.

“The revised bill was brought in the parliament for making the law time-befitting as none of the previous military governments revised the law because they were busy with capturing power,” said the minister while rejecting the review proposal suggested by the opposition lawmakers in the parliament.