Renewal of Food Safety & Regulation (Prohibition) Act hangs fire in Isles

Port Blair

25 Feb 2015

Gutka, Pan, Cigarettes, etc. are easily available in streets, road side shops which mostly attract school or college going students, especially teenagers. The young generation is addicted to these things because of their easy availability, thanks to the lax enforcement of law. Many states in India have already banned the sale of tobacco products.

The Food Safety and Regulation (Prohibition) Act 2011 allows tobacco products such as gutka to be banned for a year, which can be renewed every year. According to reports, this act which was also implemented in A&N Islands expired in November 2014 and has not been renewed thereafter. “The manufacturing and selling of such tobacco products should be banned all over the country as these products are creating health hazard like cancer and other ailments but shopkeepers are still selling the tobacco products like gutka, pan masala, etc. to the teenagers without any restraint,” say experts.

According to sources, the Food Safety department has already taken up with the A&N Administration the matter of renewal of Food Safety and Regulation (Prohibition) Act for another one year period but it has not been approved yet. As such the new ban order has not been implemented in these Islands. While Gutka, pan masala, etc. come under the food safety Act, cigarette, biddi, etc. are not covered by it. According to Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA), smoking of tobacco in public places is strictly prohibited. Tobacco products cannot be sold to any one below the age of 18 years, and within 100 metres radius from the outer boundary of an educational institution, which includes schools and colleges. This Act also gives power to all Gazetted officers include police officer, not below the rank of a sub-inspector or any officer of State Food or Drug Administration or any other officer, holding the equivalent rank not below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police for search and seizure of premises where tobacco products are produced, stored or sold, if he suspects that the provision of the Act has been violated.