Vehicles carrying gutka will lose their licence now

MUMBAI: Vehicles transporting banned pouches of pan masala, gutkha or chewable tobacco will lose their licences, state Food & Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Pallavi Darade said here on Saturday. She was quoting an order passed by FDA on Friday renewing the ban on manufacture and sale of tobacco and areca nut products.

“We are continuing the ban on manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of tobacco and areca nut products. The only addition is transport of these product will also invite action,’’ Darade told TOI. The ban has to be renewed every year.

Despite the ban on gutkha and other tobacco products since 2013, FDA has confiscated pouches worth around Rs 1 crore. In August 2018, gutkha worth Rs 1 crore was seized from two vehicles in Palghar.

Recently, 243 bags of gutkha worth Rs 38 lakh were seized from a pick-up van and minitruck at Karudi Shiva in Aurangabad on the Nagpur-Mumbai highway.

The ban includes gutkha, pan masala, flavoured/scented tobacco, flavoured/scented supari, manufactured chewing tobacco with additives, that are sold together as a mixture or separately.

Cancer surgeon Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi from Tata Memorial Hospital said Maharashtra continues to be at the forefront of the ban on tobacco products. He said only three states, including Maharashtra, have banned it till now, and studies have proven its harmful effects.