Mumbai: Over 300 illegal paan beedi shops torn down in three days

City cops and civic officials demolish illegal pan beedi shops

In a three-day joint operation launched on Tuesday, a team of city cops and civic officials demolished over 320 illegal pan and beedi shops, including those located within 100 yards (approximately 100 metres) of schools and colleges. The police have registered 35 FIRs so far, officers said on Thursday.

Also, 1,766 people have been fined for smoking in public places under The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.

Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) Satyanarayan Chaudhary told mid-day, "This operation will continue. We won't let anyone run pan beedi shops illegally." On Thursday, the Gamdevi police and officials from D ward demolished the popular pan shop, Muchhad Paanwala, along with two others near Stefan Church at B D Road in south Mumbai.

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‘Why did they wake up now?'

A shop owner near Chetna college, Bandra East, said, "We had been running our shop for years, but the authorities only now realised that these were illegal. The BMC demolished my stall and the police seized everything that was in there." He had been paying rent to the owner of the bar outside which he had his stall.

Another shop owner from Bandra West said, "Every new babu comes up with a new law just to harass poor people like us. We have been selling cigarettes and pan to cops and civic officials too, but the same people are destroying the businesses of people like me."

"I used to run a phone booth before mobile phones became popular. Later, I started selling snacks, juices, cold drinks and cigarettes. Yesterday (Wednesday), a constable came to warn me that I have to stop selling cigarettes or there will be legal action. When I told him that I have been doing business for decades, he said: mahaul garam hai, abhi cigarette mat bechna. Baad mein dekh lenge...," said a shop owner in Andheri.

Another shop owner told mid-day that cops and civic officials confiscated cigarette packets worth lakhs, which he had recently purchased. "I am sure the confiscated cigarettes will be distributed among the policemen and civic officials, as they have now shut our shops."

The action against pan beedi shops is part of the anti-NDPS drive. The police have filed 36 FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPC) Act after seizing MD, ganja and phosphate syrup. They also checked 516 habitual drug-addicts and arrested 36 for possession of drugs.