Concern has been expressed over the sale and easy
availability of banned substances, particularly pan masala, in the city
and more significantly, the limited powers of enforcement authorities
like the Excise department to initiate action in this regard.
Excise
and Narcotic officials, along with members of a committee chaired by
District Collector K.N. Satheesh, which met here on Friday to discuss
the issue of bootlegging, illicit spirit, sale of narcotic substances
and other Excise-related subjects, were told by a member about theQ
availability of pan masala from the Chala market, with exact locations
and the manner in which the banned stuff was smuggled here.
However,
Excise officials, when asked about what action they could take in this
regard, said their powers were limited to seizing such stuff during
inspections at check-posts, and even then, they could not charge cases.
All that they could do was to hand over the seized contraband and the
carrier to the police or Food Safety officials, who would have to carry
on with the rest of the procedures.
Though police
and Food Safety officials were conducting raids at regular intervals,
the pan masala menace was still large in the city, with the action so
far against vendors and persons who smuggled these being ‘not deterrent
enough’. Excise officials said they had communicated to the government
to vest with them powers to take action on this issue as well.
The
meeting, which decided to ask police and Food Safety officials to
closely monitor the sale of pan masala and similar substances, also
decided to keep an eye on and to take action against illegal sale of
liquor in various parts of the district, while inspections to curb sale
of illicitly brewed spirit would be intensified.
Deputy
Excise Commissioner (Thiruvananthapuram) P.G. Pramod Chandran,
Assistant Commissioner B. Suresh Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police
(Narcotics, Rural) K. Raju and others were present.
