Bengal puts blanket ban on gutkha, pan masala in place for one year

Kolkata: The state government has imposed a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and distribution of gutkha and pan masala from November 7.

The ban will be effective for one year. The notification in this regard has been issued by Tapan Kanti Rudra, Commissioner of Food safety, West Bengal.

It may be mentioned that Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) made the Food safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations 2011, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of articles of food in which tobacco and/or nicotine are widely used as ingredients.

The civic bodies will be instructed to conduct raids in the shops selling gutkha and pan masala. The awareness campaigns against the two substances have fallen flat, as a result of which the state government had to impose a ban on the manufacture and sale of the product.