Our National capital in a reformative move has banned all forms of chewable tobacco for one year This not only includes consumption and purchase but also storage. In this ban they have specified the products, gutkha, pan masala, khaini and zarda. This ban is only applicable in Delhi.

The last time’s gutkha ban was a fiasco, they banned only Gutkha in 2012, thus vendors started selling betel nut and tobacco in different packages, to sidestep the ban.

So in order to avoid that this time’s ban was extremely specific. According to the Department of Food Safety’s notification:

“The manufacture, storage, distribution, or sale of tobacco which is either flavoured, scented or mixed… and whether going by the name or form of gutka, 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”