BENGALURU: While the State government has imposed a blanket ban on the usage of hookah, many hookah cafes, especially those outside city limits are operating illegally, allegedly with the support of local police. Hundreds of youngsters visit these hookah cafes located along Mysuru Road, like Bidadi, Ramanagara, Airport Road and Nandi Hills, with the numbers swelling during weekends and holidays.
These cafes are doing business of over Rs 6 lakh per day on weekdays, and up to Rs 10 lakh on weekends. Tobacco control experts urge people to report illegal hookah bars to the police.
“The ban must be implemented across the state and not in Bengaluru alone. Hookah cafes are operating by greasing the hands of police,” said an owner of a cafe serving hookah who have shut their operations after the hookah ban on condition of anonymity.
As hookah bars are operating outside the city, our association is flooded with queries from hookah cafe owners in Bengaluru who have wound up operations, whether the hookah ban is applicable only in the city or across the state, the owner said, alleging that police and CCB sleuths are not taking any action for reasons best known to them.
SJ Chander, convener of the Consortium for Tobacco-Free Karnataka (CFTFK), an organisation which has been working on tobacco control for over two decades in the state, said, “Hookah contains nicotine which is more addictive than cocaine or heroin. We need to protect children and youths from being initiated into hookah. They are being lured by various flavours but are not aware of the nicotine in it.”
He stated that the government is doing its best, and added that as a society they have to report the functioning of hookah bars to the enforcing authority. “Since hookah is highly addictive and jeopardizes the future of youths, police should increase vigil on those operating hookah bars despite the ban,” Chander said.
When TNIE raised the issue of poor implementation of the hookah ban, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda said, “The Karnataka government has imposed a blanket ban on hookah and the High Court has upheld it. Based on the information we get on the functioning of hookah bars, we are taking stern action.”
He said that apart from taking action against the guilty, police will demand that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike cancel the trade licences of cafes serving hookah.