The food safety and drug administration department is
yet to identify the recipient of the 16-tonne cargo, comprising tobacco
products, that was smuggled via rail on Saturday.
Officials
seized the contraband at Central railway station on a train that had
come in from Nizamuddin. Fifty-four parcels of banned tobacco products,
the largest-ever consignment to be identified after the ban, were found.
The seized products are likely to be destroyed at the Kodungaiyur dumping yard.
A
few weeks ago, 1,000 kg of such products that had been stored in
various homes in Ayanavaram and Vadapalani were seized. Despite regular
crackdowns on commercial establishments across the city, the sale of
gutka and pan masala continues unabated, according to officials.
Ever
since the ban on carcinogenic chewable tobacco products such as gutka
and pan masala was announced in May, trains have been used to bring in
these products to the State.
Under the ban, the
manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of carcinogenic chewable
forms of tobacco is forbidden in Tamil Nadu.
No comments:
Post a Comment