The Mumbai police is cracking down on restaurants, shops and hookah parlours selling tobacco to children and in a just a week, the 104 cases have been filed across the city
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The Mumbai Police is cracking down on restaurants, shops and hookah parlours selling tobacco to children and in a just a week, the 104 cases have been filed across the city.
The drive was ordered by Mumbai police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and the crackdown has led to restaurant staffers from 17 hookah parlours being arrested this year for serving to minors. They culprits face up to seven years in jail under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
The drive has also identified and fined pan-beedi shops within 100 yards of educational institutions.
"Our main focus is to keep minors away from tobacco products. We also need public participation to make the drive stronger. Citizens can tip us off about such establishments, and we will keep their identities confidential," Pravinkumar Patil, deputy commissioner of police enforcement, heading the crack down since last week, told Hindustan Times.
This year alone, the police have also filed 84 cases against people smoking in public place.
An official from the Special Juvenile Aid Protection Unit (SJAPU), conducting the raids, told HT that the civic body does not recognise 'hookah parlours' while giving out licences. "The licences given are for smoking zones, which many restaurant turned into hookah parlours by violating several guidelines. The issue is very serious. W have rescued minors as young as 14 found consuming hookah."
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