Ahmedabad Police announces stringent rules for hookah bars

After raids on hookah bars in Ahmedabad this week, police has announced a list of measures to regulate the hookah bars.

Ahmedabad’s Police Commissioner S K Saikia on Thursday evening, announced amendments to the 2005 notification issued by the then police commissioner K R Kaushik, who had directed a separate smoking zone and screening of minors in hookah bars. New rules are following:

–Multiple cabins are not allowed.The bar should be confined to a single non-partitioned room with transparent glass walls.
–The hallway leading to the hookah bar and the hookah bar room itself should be well lit, so that faces are visible
–CCTV cameras should be installed to keep a check on visitors and their activities.
–Unedited video footage of hookah bar has to be sent to local police station every week.
–Security personnel must check the age of clients by demanding documents such as driver’s license, voter ID card, passport or birth certificate to verify they are 18 years old.
–A police inspector will collect samples of tobacco and flavors used by a bar in his zone every fortnight, and send it to a forensic laboratory to find out if anything illegal was used.Any discrepancy in the samples has to be reported to the deputy police commissioner.
–Hookah bars will have to keep a record of the visitors such as name, age and address after checking documents confirming their identity and age in a register stamped by police.
–Action will be taken against hookah bars that violate these norms under the stringent Bombay Police Act article 131 (1) in addition to the existing IPC 188 (violating police commissioner’s notification).