With the ban on gutkha and pan masala frittering away and the products being freely available in the market, the State Government has finally moved to tighten the screws.
The Government has decided to intensify the crackdown on the violators and stringently enforce the ban on gutkha and nicotine-laced ‘pan masala’ under the Food Safety and Standards (prohibition and restriction on sales) Regulations, 2011.
The drive would be launched across the State with coordination of all agencies concerned from district administration and police to officials of the Health, Urban Development, School and Mass Education, Higher Education, Excise, Food and Civil Supplies, Commercial Taxes and Transport departments. An inter-departmental coordination meeting was held under the chairmanship of Health Secretary P K Mohapatra here on Wednesday to chart out a course of action for enforcing total ban on gutkha and other tobacco products.
The State Government had banned production and sale of gutkha and other smokeless tobacco products from January 1 this year.
But almost after five months, the products continue to be openly available in the markets across the State. The only change that the ban has brought about is the visibility of the products. The sachets and pouches that were earlier openly hanged around in the shops are now stored underneath and brought out on demand of the customers. While the sale of the products have not been affected, it has surely set a trend of profiteering on the ban.
“The gutkha that used to be sold for Rs 3 a sachet before the ban now comes for a price of Rs 5 to Rs 6. The sellers are raking in money on account of the ban, more importantly, an absolute lack of enforcement”, said a customer. The Government has also decided to launch an intense campaign to educate people on the ill-effects of tobacco consumption along with the enforcement drive. The issue assumes importance as Odisha is among the highest tobacco consuming States with more than 46 per cent addicted to it.