The Delhi government has banned for one year the sale, purchase and storage of all forms of chewable tobacco, including "gutkha, pan masala, khaini and zarda." The Department of Food Safety on Wednesday issued a notification in this regard. According to the notification, unpackaged products of chewable tobacco, too, are covered under the ambit of the ban. "The manufacture, storage, distribution, or sale of tobacco which is either flavoured, scented or mixed... and whether going by the name or form of gutkha, pan masala, flavoured/scented tobacco, kharra, or otherwise... whether packaged or unpackaged and/or sold as one product, or though packaged as separate products, sold or distributed in such manner so as to easily facilitate mixing by the consumer" is prohibited for a period of one year, the notification stated.

The government tried to ban it in 2012, but tobacco retailers managed to find a way around it.

Health department officials said a notification was issued by Delhi government in September, 2012, in pursuance of a series of directions from Supreme Court for a ban on gutkha in the city.

But since the term 'gutkha' was used in that notification, tobacco retailers started selling the components of gutkha (betel nut and raw tobacco) in separate pouches, thus defeating the purpose behind the ban on gutkha.

The health department had, therefore, come up with a new proposal for banning all raw chewable tobacco products in Delhi, a senior official said.