Enforcing the ban on paan masala and tobacco products seems to be a tough task for the state health department with the entire administrative machinery tied up in the struggle to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jharkhand on Friday prohibited the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of 11 brands of paan masala for 12 months for containing the harmful chemical magnesium carbonate. Earlier, on April 22, the government had decided to ban sale and use of tobacco products in public.

“We are witnessing mass influx of migrant workers and most of them consume tobacco and paan masala,” said `Deepak Mishra, executive director Socio Economics and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), who is also a member of the state tobacco control programme.

“There should be proper monitoring of such migrant workers and they should be informed about the government decision of blanket ban on consumption of tobacco and paan masala,” he added.

Sources associated with the state tobacco control programme said that most of the district-level tobacco control cells including the nodal officers, mostly the district leprosy officer,have been entrusted with tasks related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Monitoring of sale and consumption of tobacco and paan masala is almost negligible. Few symbolic raids are carried by the district administration only on the basis of tip-offs,” said the source.

A senior Ranchi-based police official pointed to Bihar’s experience with a similar ban.

“We saw what happened in Bihar which imposed a ban on paan masala in August last year. The wholesalers had shifted their godowns to neighbouring districts of Jharkhand like Koderma, Chatra and Deoghar and tried to transport products clandestinely to other parts of Bihar from there. A similar arrangement would be done in Jharkhand too in the near future and raids should be conducted based on intelligence inputs soon to prevent shifting of stock,” he said.

Dr L.R. Pathak, state nodal officer for national tobacco control programme (NTCP), admitted the challenges but said that raids were being carried outs.

“It is not possible to screen every migrant labourer but we are trying to counsel them about harmful effects of consuming tobacco and paan masala,” said Dr Pathak.