Editor’s note, Ahmedabad, 15 August 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has declared blanket ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and consumption of gutkha in Gujarat. The ban will be effective from 11 September onwards. Gujarat is not the first state to impose ban on Gutka. Several other states have already taken this step. Gujarat has sacrificed 100s of crores rupees of tax revenue by prohibiting liquor. Now the state is all set to sacrifice huge tax revenue on Gutka too. But it is worth sacrificing. While most of the people connect Gutka ban with only health related hazards, following are some more examples of other kinds of nuisance of Gutka.

-Go to Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati river front. Everything would look fine, but if you look at the corners, or the steps you would find lot of garbage of gutka pouches. If you stop to look at total garbage and segregate it, you would find that 70% part of that would be occupied by empty gutka pouches.

-Various civic authorities have time and again found that main cause of drainage line choke up is disposed gutkha pouches.

-Doctors have treated cows with huge number of empty disposed gutka pouches in stomach.

-Go to any public building or commercial complex, you would find dirty Gutka-stained walls.

-Due to 20% VAT(in Gujarat) and other taxes over Tobaco products including Gutka, the price of small Gutka pouch is much higher. As Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech at Junagadh today, Gutka is even more costlier than dry fruits. Substantial income of millions of youths is wasted on consumption of Gutka.

-There’s alleged mafia involvement in Gutka business in India. Daud Ibrahim’s interest in Gutka business is well-known(remember Joshi/Dhariwal issue involving Dawood?) Take this example of mafia dominated Gutka business. One gentleman in Ahmedabad launched Chhutkha – an ayurvedic product that can be used as alternative to Gutka. He advertised his product, and soon started getting threat calls from mafias. That gentleman had to wind up his business and stopped advertising Chhutkha due to threats from mafias.

-On one side, the government would give grants worth crores of rupees from its budget to run cancer hospitals, and on the other side the government levies tax from tobacco and gutka products. Such double standards must end. Though all tobacco products are not banned yet, even a token start with Gutka ban is good for now. Sacrificing the tax revenue is good in this case.

-Every smart person would doubt the possibilities of effective implementation of ban. My one friend reacted, “Gutka will now be available at even more cost due to grey trade. The government will lose tax money, and people will be paying up more to mafias.” While this may happen with existing generation, the major chunk of new generation will be perhaps saved from Gutka due to non-availability in open. While the government is sacrificing huge tax revenue for a good cause, it must employ its best strength to implement the ban strongly.