Mira Bhayandar: After launching a crackdown on illegally constructed bars, pubs and lodges in the twin-city, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has now trained its attention in acting against stalls selling products like cigarette, tobacco and guthka within 100 meters of schools, colleges and religious institutions.
Special teams from MBMC’s anti-encroachment department in association with officials and personnel from the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police force acted against more than 30 such stalls on Sunday. The action follows a blanket order issued by chief minister-Eknath Shinde to all municipal and police chiefs across the state to intensify their efforts in weeding out the menace from their respective jurisdictions.
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To eliminate addiction of tobacco among students, who easily get attracted to such products, the district authorities have passed an order which states that no paan (betel nut) or cigarette shops are allowed to operate within a range of 100 meters from any educational or religious institutions. Contrarily, such shops/stalls are brazenly throwing the rulebooks to the wind by openly selling cigarettes, tobacco, guthka and even nicotine-laced hookah to customers-especially youngsters.
Although the sale of banned guthka products continues unabated, a strong syndicate of the notorious smugglers brazenly operate a well-oiled distribution network in the twin-city. It has been alleged that small time suppliers land into the cop net, even as the source of consignment mostly remains a mystery. Moreover, the FDA also choses to play blind to the illegalities.
