PUNE: State food and drug administration ( FDA) commissioner Mahesh Zagade on Saturday said that he has written letters to the food safety administrations in other states asking them to consider banning the sale and manufacture of gutka and paan masala. He has urged the administrations to implement the ban as strongly as it has been enforced in Maharashtra.
Zagade was in the city to attend an anti-tobacco seminar. Addressing a press conference, Zagade said he has also written to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India urging the authorities to convene a meeting of all the FDAs in the country to ensure proper implementation of the ban on tobacco products. to implement the ban on tobacco products with the same seriousness as Maharashtra.
"I have also written to the railway ministry to take proper measures and prevent tobacco and tobacco-related products from entering Maharashtra. There have been many instances when such material is loaded onto trains and brought into our state. I have requested the authorities to not book such material for Maharashtra.
I have asked designated senior police officials along with the officials of other departments to cooperate with us and tighten the norms further grip of the ban in the state," Zagade said.
On the protests against the ban on gutka, Zagade said banning the product was imperative. "Though selling tobacco is business for some, it endangers the lives of people at large. Between public and private interest, the government will have to think about public interest. To make profit by selling tobacco and related products is not an offence, but endangering people's lives is unacceptable," he said.
He said the state government has seized gutka and paan masala worth Rs 21 crore since the ban was imposed in 2012.
Last month, the state government had extended the ban on sale and manufacture of gutka as well as paan masala which includes all types of processed or packaged tobacco. As a result, local vendors cannot sell paan (betel leaf) with flavoured tobacco, kaath and lime (edible calcium carbonate), 'maava' or 'kharra' (a mix of processed tobacco, betel nut or areca nut and lime), 'khaini' (flavoured tobacco) or other processed and packaged tobacco products.
Pankaj Chaturvedi, surgeon at Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Hospital, who recently won an award in the US for an anti-tobacco campaign, and was present at the news conference said, "As many as two crore people in the state eat tobacco or tobacco-related products. One-third of them will die prematurely due to this habit. Every third person from Maharashtra suffers from tobacco addiction, while some data also show that only 2% of Indians who are hooked to tobacco can quit the habit. Thus, vendors who sell tobacco are actually selling disease to people. Figures show that only 15% of their income comes from selling tobacco products."
Zagade said he visited 13 drug shops in Pune on Saturday and none of them have reported any supply shortage in supply of drugs.
Zagade was in the city to attend an anti-tobacco seminar. Addressing a press conference, Zagade said he has also written to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India urging the authorities to convene a meeting of all the FDAs in the country to ensure proper implementation of the ban on tobacco products. to implement the ban on tobacco products with the same seriousness as Maharashtra.
"I have also written to the railway ministry to take proper measures and prevent tobacco and tobacco-related products from entering Maharashtra. There have been many instances when such material is loaded onto trains and brought into our state. I have requested the authorities to not book such material for Maharashtra.
I have asked designated senior police officials along with the officials of other departments to cooperate with us and tighten the norms further grip of the ban in the state," Zagade said.
On the protests against the ban on gutka, Zagade said banning the product was imperative. "Though selling tobacco is business for some, it endangers the lives of people at large. Between public and private interest, the government will have to think about public interest. To make profit by selling tobacco and related products is not an offence, but endangering people's lives is unacceptable," he said.
He said the state government has seized gutka and paan masala worth Rs 21 crore since the ban was imposed in 2012.
Last month, the state government had extended the ban on sale and manufacture of gutka as well as paan masala which includes all types of processed or packaged tobacco. As a result, local vendors cannot sell paan (betel leaf) with flavoured tobacco, kaath and lime (edible calcium carbonate), 'maava' or 'kharra' (a mix of processed tobacco, betel nut or areca nut and lime), 'khaini' (flavoured tobacco) or other processed and packaged tobacco products.
Pankaj Chaturvedi, surgeon at Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Hospital, who recently won an award in the US for an anti-tobacco campaign, and was present at the news conference said, "As many as two crore people in the state eat tobacco or tobacco-related products. One-third of them will die prematurely due to this habit. Every third person from Maharashtra suffers from tobacco addiction, while some data also show that only 2% of Indians who are hooked to tobacco can quit the habit. Thus, vendors who sell tobacco are actually selling disease to people. Figures show that only 15% of their income comes from selling tobacco products."
Zagade said he visited 13 drug shops in Pune on Saturday and none of them have reported any supply shortage in supply of drugs.
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