The State Government in January this year announced a ban on manufacture, sale and use of gutkha and chewing tobacco containing nicotine in pursuance of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (FSSAI) Act, 2011 and its Sections 2, 3 and 4.
Earlier, the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court had also upheld the ban on smokeless tobacco items under the FSSAI Act. Odisha is the 15th State to ban manufacture, storage, sale or distribution, advertisement of gutkha, pan masala and other products containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients.
According to experts, gutkha is a preparation of crushed areca nut (also called betel nut), tobacco, catechu, paraffin, slaked lime and sweet or savoury flavourings. Gutkha and pan masala are articles of food in which tobacco and/or nicotine are widely used as ingredients. Highly addictive and a known carcinogen, gutkha is currently the subject of much controversy in India. Many States have sought to curb its immense popularity by taxing its sales heavily or by banning it outright. Excessive gutkha use can eventually lead to loss of appetite, unusual sleep patterns and loss of concentration along with other tobacco-related problems. It is consumed much like chewing tobacco, and like chewing tobacco, it is considered responsible for oral cancer and other severe negative health effects.
Even as about four months have elapsed since gutkha was banned in the State, its sale is rampant and going on unabated in Brahmapur and its adjoining areas as well as in many other parts of the State, that too in black and fetching huge profits to the traders, thanks to the failure of the Government to put in place an effective mechanism to check the illicit trade.
In the absence of an effective implementation of ban, some traders, retailers and pan shops are now selling the product manufactured under various trade names at two to three times higher prices right under the nose of the law enforcement agencies. A pouch of Rs 2-gutkha is being sold at Rs 5 and that with MRP of Rs 10 at Rs 15 to Rs 20, said a consumer of gutkha.
Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik had issued a directive on January 17 through a videoconferencing to the Collectors and Superintendents of Police of all districts to intensify enforcement of the ban order against food products containing tobacco and nicotine, but it has not received the expected attention of the law enforcement agencies. The Chief Secretary has mentioned that the enforcement should be taken to such heights that real impact is felt at societal level and prohibition against these silent killers becomes a part of social life.
According to an estimate made by some unidentified retailers, the sale of gutkha, pan masala, cigarette and other products containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients accounts for more than Rs 5 lakh a day in the area under the Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) alone. The old bus-stand, new bus-stand, railway station, San Bazar Square, Bada Bazar Square, Mahuri Gali, Girija Square, Utkal Cinema Hall Road, Bijipur Chhak, Gandhinagar, Gajapati Nagar and Aska Road are among the notable areas in which such rampant sale of gutkhas and pan masalas are going on.
A retailer, who did not wish to be identified, when contacted, said, “We have kept the pouches of gutkha and pan masala in a hidden place and use to sell them only to our regular and known customers and but not strangers.”
District Coordinator of Voluntary Health Association Abhinas Thakur pointed out that no surprise raid on retailers and pan shops has been conducted by the district health authorities at Brahmapur during last five months to book the violators of law. The health authorities lack will power to check such a menace, he alleged.
When contacted, Superintendent of VSS Medical College and Hospital and well-known medicine specialist and cardiologist Prof lK Dash said consumption of gutkha and pan masala not only leads to oral cancer but also a number of serious heart diseases, for which the Government should ensure strict implementation of its ban order in the interest of public health.
When this correspondent wanted to know the reason for the delay in implementation of the ban order and the reason for not conducting regular raids of shops and retailers in the city, ADMO (Public Health) Dr lalit Mohan Rath revealed a different story. He said that according to the guidelines received from the Department of Health & Family Welfare, an enforcement aquad (taskforce) is to be constituted under the chairmanship of the district Collector; public awareness mechanism is to be determined; sensitisation meetings are to be organised; the seized samples need to be examined in any national accredited public health laboratory; and a host of other guidelines need to be finalised before conducting raids and implementation of the law.
The file relating to constitution of enforcement squad and finalisation of draft guidelines has been sent to the district Collector for approval since last two months which is still awaited. Though the Government has sanctioned two posts of Food Inspector, not a single post of inspector has yet been filled up, as a result of which the law could not be enforced, Dr Rath said.
He further said that his office sent a sample for experiment to a Kolkata-based Sample Testing laboratory which he received back with the remark that the laboratory is not accredited; hence the laboratory made a condition that each testing would cost Rs 1,500. When ADMO (PH) office here sought a clarification from the Director of Public Health pertaining to such payment, no reply in this regard has yet been received, he pointed.
These facts, therefore, clearly reveal the lack of will power on the parts of both the district administration and the Health Department in enforcing the law, thereby making the ban a mere eyewash and a mockery, feel intellectuals. The CDMO was not available for his comments.