Raids continue, so too the sales
The Food Safety Department’s attempt to plug supply chain of nicotine-laced pan masala, gutka, and chewing tobacco in the district has yielded only limited results.
Periodic raids notwithstanding, shops continue to receive supplies. Chewable tobacco products worth Rs. 2 lakh was seized on Wednesday in raids conducted in shops at Veerappanchathiram on Wednesday by a team led by G. Karunanidhi, District Officer for Food Safety, but the officials could not extract the exact truth from the sellers about the supply source.
The sellers said they get their supplies from Salem district.
“But, that is not the truth. We suspect that the paan products are being brought into the district through private transport lorries,” Mr. Karunanidhi said adding that a combined effort by Department of Transport, the police, and Food Safety Department was necessary.
Last December, a parcel containing chewable tobacco, without any address of consignee, was seized from a private bus that originated from Bangalore.
The seized items valued at Rs. 1.9 lakh was destroyed after a month.
The seizure came a month after a huge rail consignment of banned gutka was confiscated at the Erode Railway Station.
The consignment worth over Rs. 5 lakh was unloaded after police personnel found that it did not have the address of either the sender or the receiver.
According to officials, the medical costs of treating smokeless tobacco-related cancers and diseases far overweights the tax revenue accruing from sale of the harmful products.
Though manufacture and sale of all forms of smokeless tobacco was made illegal under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the supplies persist because the law is not applied strictly throughout the country.
The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare has advocated total ban on manufacture and sale of such products to protect the citizens right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The Food Safety Department’s attempt to plug supply chain of nicotine-laced pan masala, gutka, and chewing tobacco in the district has yielded only limited results.
Periodic raids notwithstanding, shops continue to receive supplies. Chewable tobacco products worth Rs. 2 lakh was seized on Wednesday in raids conducted in shops at Veerappanchathiram on Wednesday by a team led by G. Karunanidhi, District Officer for Food Safety, but the officials could not extract the exact truth from the sellers about the supply source.
The sellers said they get their supplies from Salem district.
“But, that is not the truth. We suspect that the paan products are being brought into the district through private transport lorries,” Mr. Karunanidhi said adding that a combined effort by Department of Transport, the police, and Food Safety Department was necessary.
Last December, a parcel containing chewable tobacco, without any address of consignee, was seized from a private bus that originated from Bangalore.
The seized items valued at Rs. 1.9 lakh was destroyed after a month.
The seizure came a month after a huge rail consignment of banned gutka was confiscated at the Erode Railway Station.
The consignment worth over Rs. 5 lakh was unloaded after police personnel found that it did not have the address of either the sender or the receiver.
According to officials, the medical costs of treating smokeless tobacco-related cancers and diseases far overweights the tax revenue accruing from sale of the harmful products.
Though manufacture and sale of all forms of smokeless tobacco was made illegal under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the supplies persist because the law is not applied strictly throughout the country.
The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare has advocated total ban on manufacture and sale of such products to protect the citizens right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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