The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carried out a mega drive against shops selling gutkha, and pan masala, confiscating goods, and lodging FIRs against 16 vendors at several police stations.
Drive against tobacco products banned since 2012
This mega drive was conducted in several places including Mulund, Dadar, Parel, Nagpada, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Pydhonie. The drive was against the tobacco-based products which have been banned in the state of Maharashtra since 2012. These products include gutka, pan masala, scented tobacco and sweet supari. According to police officials, they have been trying to curb the ‘gutkha’ menace for several years – but “if we close down one shop, another one pops out”, said a police official.
Police, along with the FDA, raided these pan shops on Thursday. As per FDA, a total of six first information report (FIR) has been registered at various police stations, including, Nirmal Nagar, Dindoshi, Bandra, Kalachowky, Saki Naka, Nagpada, Pydhonie, against 16 individuals, or vendors, who ran the illegal business of gutka sale. They added that they had seized over lakhs worth of stock during the raid.
"Suppliers are “local” but the links go to Gujarat-based wholesalers"
At Pydhonie police’s jurisdiction - Abdul Rehman Street, a popular marketplace, the police arrested four vendors during the raid. Talking to FPJ, one of the officers involved in the raid seizure, said, “These shopkeepers don’t keep transaction records while they buy or sell gutkha-based products. They revealed their suppliers are “local” but the links go to Gujarat-based wholesalers. That’s the way of trade, no proof, meaning no transaction. They sell it openly.”
Interestingly, most of the shops that were raided by the FDA, fall right under the nose, or at a stone’s throw from the police stations, yet they function illicitly. One of the vendors, who runs a small-time pan stall in the Crawford area, where the office of the Mumbai Police commissioner is located, informed saying, “We know gutkha is illegal, but we are allowed to run this business for over a decade. They (the police) know we sell gutkha, and they consume it too. It could be a seasonal raid if I must say so – they do this once every 6 to 8 months, to make money out of us. During other times of the year, we pay them hafta to satiate their hunger for money.”
