ADMN TEAM COLLECTS FOOD SAMPLES FROM CCD, KHAN PAAN, FOOD ZONE AT TB

Ujjain: A team of administrative officers inspected food court of PVR Cinemas ( Khan Paan), food zone, Café Coffee Day ( CCD) at Treasure Bazaar ( TB) Mall, near Birla Hospital and collected food samples here on Friday.

A team comprised of food department officer Sachin Logariya and Shailesh Gupta inspected at food zone of PVR Cinemas under the leadership of City Magistrate Shyamendra Jaiswal. Sample of apple juice blunt was taken from CCD while bread- buns and sauce samples were taken from Khan Paan. Team also checked the manufacturing date, ingredients and expiry date of samples. Team checked the license of vendors too.

On being contacted Jaiswal told Free Press that team raided at restaurants and collected food samples under Section 47 of Food Safety and Standard Act 2006. Team also checked the quality of eatable items as well as inspected sanitary and safety factors there. Food samples will be sent for food testing laboratory test. If found guilty then case would be run in administrative court under the same act. City Magistrate Shyamendra Jaiswal talking to PVR Cinemas manager during the raid of coffee house in Ujjain on Friday.

Banned tobacco seized on train

DHARAMSHALA: While sale of tobacco was banned by Himachal Pradesh government in October this year, railway police at Samela near Kangra on Friday noon recovered a parcel containing huge quantity of tobacco (14 cartons containing 30,000 pouches) being transported from Pathankot in Punjab to Jogindernagar. Exposing chinks in implementation of ban on tobacco products, the local authorities refused to register a case, reasoning that the consignment was seized on premises administered by the central government and therefore they had no jurisdiction.

"Till the time I am not directed by my senior colleagues, I cannot register a case," said food inspector Manjeet Kumar, the competent authority to register the case. Official claimed this was first such case to have surfaced after ban on tobacco products was imposed in the state. However, they admitted that it was evident from the amount of recovery that transportation of a banned product in such huge quantities could only be possible if it was being done as a routine practice for a long time.

"We recovered 14 cartoons from the train, which contained about 30,000 packets of tobacco. These were being carried to Jogindernagar in district Mandi, which is the last station on this route in Himachal. Despite all our efforts, no local officials are ready to take further action and we have no idea where else to go," said Subhash Kumar, in-charge of Samela railway station. Action can be taken under the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, but the railways do not have a food inspector at Kangra, while local officials from the food and supplies department empowered to take action are not ready to do so.

Excise and taxation inspector Kangra Swarn Singh said: "We received information about the tobacco parcels in late afternoon. We will have to read relevant rules before taking any action." When contacted, SDM Kangra Ajeet Bhardwaj said he had assisted the police and other authorities, "but only senior officials of the concerned department can consider the case further". The authorities were still debating till late evening who the competent authority was to take action. But no case was registered till the filling of this report even as recovery was done before 9 am on Friday.

Cigarettes, bidis, gutka (tobacco-laced areca nut pieces) and pan masala are banned substances in Himachal Pradesh. Anyone who is involved in sale, storage, manufacturing and distribute of tobacco-based products invite action under the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006..

‘Gutka’ ban: What will happen to tobacco farmers, street vendors?

New Delhi: Ten states have banned a popular form of chewing tobacco in a major policy shift that may save millions of lives and strike a blow at the global tobacco industry, already reeling from new anti-smoking laws around the world.

But an estimated 65 million Indians use “gutka” — a heady form of chewing tobacco made of crushed betel nut, nicotine and laced with thousands of chemicals — and furious manufacturers are fighting to have the bans overturned.

Companies such as Delhi-based DS Group are dragging states to courts, complaining that the billion-dollar industry should be regulated as tobacco and not as food and that the bans threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and street vendors scattered from Bangalore to New Delhi.

Recently, Punjab became the 10th of 28 states to ban the sale of “gutka” after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India reclassified it as a foodstuff, prohibiting the use of tobacco and nicotine as “ingredients in any food product.”

Some 482 million people   live in the 10 states which have enforced the bans.  Delhi, Gujarat and Chandigarh, with a combined population of    77 million,  are due to follow suit.

Madhya Pradesh was the first to ban the product, and Kerala, Bihar and seven others hopped on the bandwagon.

Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala went a step further by banning all smokeless forms of tobacco, including paan masala, usually sold as a mouth freshener. But it remains to be seen how well the bans are enforced.