Tamil Nadu will appeal against the Madras high court order quashing the ban on the sales, manufacture and transport of tobacco-based products, the Tamil Nadu health minister M.Subramanian said today. 

He was here to participate in the White Coat Ceremony of the first-year medical students in ESI Medical College, said.
Replying to a specific question on the demand by a traders' body, whether the products can be sold in stores now, Subramanian told reporters here that the body should understand the ill effect of consuming such products,
including a threat to lives and also livelihoods. It will not be fair to make business on the lives of others and poor, he said.

However, the government has decided to go for an appeal to the Supreme Court after taking legal opinion and consulting experts, he said.  If necessary an amendment will be brought to the law in the
assembly session, he added.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will issue appointment orders to 130 doctors in Siddha, Ayurveda and Homeopathy departments, 16 compassionate appointments in the health department, the regularisation of 520 timescale staff nurses on
February 3, he said.

Of the Rs.2.76 crore medical equipment meant for various hospitals in the State, as announced in the last budget, Rs.56 lakh worth of devices were given to the ESI Hospital here today, he said.