The government of Punjab, India, yesterday ordered a ban on the production of gutka, pan masala, processed/flavored/scented chewing tobacco and food products containing tobacco or nicotine, according to an Indo-Asian News Service story.
A report issued earlier in the day by the SinghStation had said that a previous ban on production of these products had been lifted.
The earlier report had said that the Punjab had been among the first of India’s states to ban the production of chewing tobacco after the Union Health Ministry in August 2011 had framed new rules to prevent the adulteration of food, but that it had lifted the ban because, with 20 states not having imposed bans, the Punjab’s tobacco industry had been put at a disadvantage.
The one thing that the two reports did agree on was that the storage, sale and distribution of the named products were prohibited within Punjab.
The News Service story, quoting a spokesperson for the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the state government had issued on January 1 a notification banning the storage, sale and distribution of the products in question.
On January 7, it said, the government had order a ban on the production of the products.