The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will issue a notification banning all hookah bars in the city within a fortnight, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
Hookah bar owners The Telegraph spoke to said they would keep serving customers till they receive any government order or are told by police to not serve hookah.
Hakim had on Friday said that the KMC would stop issuing new licenses to hookah bars and issue a notification that will declare all existing licences cancelled. On Saturday, he told Metro that the notification would be published within two weeks.
The mayor appealed to hookah bar owners to stop serving customers immediately but agreed there was no legal bar till the notification was published. “We will issue the notification within two weeks. It will take some time. Once the notification is out, the hookah bars have to shut down. The police will be able to act against those who keep their hookah bars open,” Hakim told The Telegraph.
“The decision was prompted by complaints from many parents. Many cities have already banned hookah bars.”
Almost all hookah bars have teenagers as their main customers. Sometimes, even minors are served hookah without the joints trying to check their identities.
A KMC official said they issue a licence for a restaurant or café and then the owner seeks a permit to serve hookah. The official said that most places serve hookah in the city without a formal permit.
Hookahs are waterpipes used to smoke tobacco mixtures added with a variety of flavors. Charcoal-heated air passes through the tobacco mixture and ultimately through a water-filled chamber. A user inhales the smoke through mouthpiece.
“The hookah contains nicotine and tobacco. They injure the lungs and are carcinogenic,” said Ajoy Sarkar, a pulmonologist and critical care expert with Peerless Hospital. “If smoke from the coal is inhaled, that is also injuring the lungs. They can cause inflammation of the airways.”
There are around 1,000 hookah bars in the state, said Sahil Khan, the owner of Koyla Café and Lounge near Quest Mall.
“Usually, we run our business after taking a verbal permission from the police. We are not doing anything illegal. Chewing gutkha or smoking in public places is banned but they are still going on. I do not know why the government is after us?” asked a hookah bar owner.
Ayaz Ahmed, the owner of La Letizia Café and Restro on Beck Bagan Row, said 90 per cent of his customers came for the hookah. “This is the mainstay of the business,” he said.
Khan and Ahmed said the government should shut down the ones that are found using drugs but should not impose a blanket ban.