Tobacco products worth 1cr seized

Biggest Single Seizure Since Ban Enforced 7 Months Ago TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Chennai: Smuggling of banned chewable tobacco products into the city is on the rise. Food safety and drug administration officials on Thursday seized 32.5 tonnes of banned tobacco products worth 1 crore from a firm in Royapuram.     Fifty-nine tonnes of tobacco products like gutkha worth 1.92 crore have been seized since May, when the ban came into effect.     “This is the biggest seizure since the ban came into force,” said district food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan. The office of the firm that brought the consignment was sealed and police asked to act against the firm. “We will destroy the items at Kodungaiyur dump yard on Friday,” he added.     In July, transport and parcel firms had been warned against bringing such consignments from other states after 629.7kg of gutkha and pan masala worth 2lakhwere seized from a firm on Wall Tax Road. Most consignments are brought by rail or road along with other products.     Activists say the ban has become ‘a joke’. “Many find smuggling these products safe because even if they are caught they can get away with a small fine,” said Azhagar Senthil, social activist.     Some vendors say tobacco firms have come out with new ‘mixes’. “We get pan masala andchewing tobaccoseparately from thesamefirm.I gettwo packets for 7 and sell them for 10,” said one in Broadway.     Regular customers say the ban has not made any difference. “Earlier, I used to buy pan masala in a sachet. Now I buy the same product in two different sachets for an extra sum,” said a customer in Sowcarpet.     Some say the ban has also led to black marketing. A wholesale vendor of pan masala says a 3 sachet is being sold for 10- 15 in the black market.     Health experts say migrant workers are the major users of pan masala in the city and that the use of such products is among the causes for the increasing incidence of mouth cancer. CAUGHT RED-HANDED JUNE 28 | More than a tonne of gutkha, pan masala seized from a house in Ayanavaram JULY 7 | Gutkha, pan masala worth 2 lakh smuggled in from Andhra Pradesh seized on Wall Tax Road AUG 7 | 30 bags of pan masala worth 2.79 lakh seized from a godown in Seven Wells SEPT 15 | 135kg of gutka, pan masala seized from Sowcarpet NOV 19 | Tobacco products worth 8 lakh seized from three godowns in Sowcarpet NOV 21 | Tobacco products worth 1 crore seized from Royapuram