Pan masala, gutka sell like hot cakes

For Civic: A man chewing tobacco in Tiruchi.

The ban is being flouted due to lack of enforcement in the recent past

In spite of the ban on sale of pan masala and gutka, sales continue unabated in different parts of the city.

The ban came into effect in 2013. As per the State government order, no one should store, distribute and sale of gutka and pan masala. The officials of Food Safety and Drug Administration Department were empowered to take action against those manufacturing, storing and selling the banned items.

Though the Food Safety officials, along with the Tiruchi Corporation officials had conducted raids on shops selling banned items in the past, the sale is said to have reached all time high with the lack of enforcement in the recent past.

A wait of about half an hour by this correspondent at a petty shop near Central Bus stand revealed that the sale of gutka and pan masala was almost equivalent to the sale of cigarettes. At least 10 customers bought pan masala brands such as “hans”, Shanti strong, SNT-1 and others. All of them were different forms of chewable tobacco.

They were sold secretly to the customers, although they were available in plenty in the petty shop. They were sold between Rs.5 and Rs.15 per bag.

Each sachet was sold for at least ₹2 more than the actual price printed on it.

“Pan masala sale accounts for about 15 per cent of our daily transactions. Otherwise, we will loose our customers,” a petty shop owner at the Central Bus stand told The Hindu.

Another petty shop owner said that the sale of banned items was profitable than selling cigarettes as customers would not question the price of pan masala.

Enquiries revealed that most of the shop keepers, mainly petty shop owners, continued to sell the banned items in Tiruchi and neighbouring areas.

They were available in almost all petty shops in Cantonment, Central Bus Stand, Railway junction and other areas.

Enquiries further said there were many wholesale traders selling pan masala items on Big Bazaar Street, Peria Kammala Street and others.

The petty shop owners would visit them to buy pan masala items whenever they wanted.

“Pan masala chewing has become a habit to me. Even If I want to quit, it is not possible as pan masala is easily available,” said M. Vasanthan, a teenager of Ponnagar, who bought a sachet of pan masala for ₹15.