Bombay HC heeds Voice of Victims, Upholds Ban on Pan-Masala along with Gutka

Mumbai, 15th September 2012: Many tobacco victims, and their anxious family members, will heave a big sigh of relief today. In a case that was keenly watched by public health activists and tobacco victims families, Bombay High Court today upheld Maharashtra's stringent ban on pan masala. The high court refused to give relief to eight big manufacturers of pan masala, gutka and allied products by issuing a stay order against the ban. Thus, the judiciary has vindicated the firm stand taken by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and other leading administrators to curb the menace of tobacco.

Advocate General Darius Khambatta and Additional Solicitor General Kevic Setalwad defended the state government's decision to ban pan masala. Senior advocate Rajni Iyer represented the intervenor, namely Action Council against Tobacco India (ACT-India), which is an NGO based in Tata Memorial Hospital.

Harish Bakshi, a former victim who was part of the team that campaigned with the administration for this ban, hailed the court's decision and congratulated the Maharashtra government and civil society groups that had fought together for this issue. “I would particularly like thank FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagade, who took such a bold step. However, I am a bit worried by the fact that the administration is not destroying the stocks of gutka and pan masala seized, worth Rs 86 crores. Because it means they can be sold somewhere else.

“However, I heartily congratulate all the tobacco victims and surgeons from Tata Memorial hospital, who, supported by NGOs such as Salaam Bombay Foundation, had together campaigned for Maharashtra's stringent ban, which is miles ahead of other states. This stay order was being sought by the banned gutka industry in order to enable a backdoor re-entry for gutka, in the guise of independent tobacco pouches to be sold along with pan masala but intended to be consumed along with it. Getting pan masala excluded from the scope of this ban would have essentially nullified the ban. Indeed, as a former consumer, I know of prominent places such as outside CST station where tobacco and such products are being sold in independent pouches for mixing together. The police must crack down on such places and close the loopholes,” urges Harish.

Read ban orders of some states: http://tiny.cc/Ban-Orders-Many-States”

Pan masala itself is not just an innocent mixture of arecanut cuttings, food flavours and sweeteners. It is a specialized product engineered for causing addiction, and as such, it is an ingenious mix of traditional items and chemicals such as magnesium carbonate., designed to deliver ever higher "highs" to addicts. The similarity in packaging and marketing of gutkha and pan masala is no accident; pan masala initiates unwary people and gets them to set foot on the slippery slope of addiction. Gutka, khaini etc. lie in wait further down that slope. Maharashtra FDA's ban order dated 19 July 2012 highlighted the risk posed by Magnesium Carbonate present in pan masala, which leads to hyper magnesia, and sometimes cardiac arrest. Even pan masala brands marketed as “tobacco-free” contain high levels of nicotine, as revealed by a study commissioned by the Ministry of Health. Laboratory analysis of randomly picked pan masala brand samples by the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh has revealed that Rajnigandha pan masala contains 2.26 gm of nicotine per 100 gm of pan masala -- more than Goa 1000 Gutkha, a leading brand which has 2.04 gm of nicotine per 100 gm.

Among those who had eloquently made presentations to the Chief Minister, Deputy CM and sensitized the State Assembly was Sumitra Pednekar, wife of late Satish Pednekar, who had succumbed to oral cancer in 2011 at the age of 61 years. Satish Pednekar, a former Home and Labour Minister of Maharashtra, was fond of having 5 to 6 packets of gutka every day. This ban may have come too late for campaigners like Sumitra and her two daughters, who were emotionally and financially ruined by the death of Satish Pednekar. But if they are reading this, these campaigners may draw some comfort from the fact that their efforts were not in vain.

FOR MORE DETAILS, CONTACT:

• Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Associate Professor, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai -chaturvedi.pankaj###gmail(dot)com
• Ashima Sarin, Project Director - VoTV - +91-8860786604 sarina ###healis (dot)org
  (Pl replace ### with @ and (dot) with .)

RTI Task force for transparency in Banks & Financial Sector

Dear Friends,

A number of RTI activists are fighting for transparency in the banking sector, and their regulatory bodies. Whenever they have filed RTI applications for information from the banking sector – even where a large element of public interest is involved -- many activists have found that the banks are stonewalling and evading disclosures. RTI activists have many favourable orders from Central Information Commission to support them in their fight, but it is necessary for activists to come together on this issue and pool their energies.

In recent weeks, a number of activists have discussed with me about this area of need. (By a happy coincidence, I have been asked to address a meeting on this topic by Moneylife Foundation this week.)

So I am inviting you to not only participate in but spearhead a task force for transparency in this sector. If you have some experience with RTI on banks, or you are yourself a banker, we urge you to share your knowledge and insights with us.

WHY FOCUS ON BANKS? SOME SPECIFIC REASONS:

1. Banks play a key role in our lives. God forbid, if some major banks – or even relatively minor cooperative banks -- were to pack up tomorrow, we would be very badly hit. Therefore, their lending and investment policies are very much our concern. Banks – especially nationalized banks – cannot argue that what they do is their internal matter”, and of no concern to citizens!

2. Alarmingly, banks are increasingly acting like usurious money-lenders. Many of their loans – especially gold-loans and loans against property – are aimed at distressed borrowers who have been hit by recession and are struggling to maintain their lifestyle and business. A large proportion of such borrowers fail to repay their loans, and lose their assets. To promote borrowing in such an economic environment is exploitative: http://tinyurl.com/Bank-Loans-Aggressive-promos

3. Nationalized banks, private banks and cooperative banks have disproportionate clout. They are repositories of depositors’ moneys, and also retail as well as bulk lenders. Last but not least, they are investors participating in the equity markets and competing with small investors.

4. As bulk lenders and investors, they influence industrial growth. As retail lenders and savings banks, they determine consumer and investor behavior. By varying the interest rates on deposits and loans, they play a major role in determining whether the bulk of Indians invest in equity, put their money into fixed-income instruments, or use their money in buying consumer goods.

5. Banks and bankers actively shape the policies made by the Union Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India. The quality of their reporting to the government and regulatory bodies, and the pressures that they exert on governance, are key determinants on what happens to our nation. They actually have enough power to crash the economy singlehandedly!

6. Bad banks = costly bailouts using public moneys. Most banks are considered “too big to fail”. Government invariably steps in to rescue banks that are in trouble, using large amounts of public moneys for bailouts. This means that minding the business of banks is every citizen’s business!

7. Fuzzy lines in banking. The lines between non-banking finance companies and banks are blurred.

8. Conflicts of interest. With many banks like SBI becoming shareholders in loss-making companies like Kingfisher Airlines, and also project-finance to unscrupulous builders following bad and illegal practices, conflicts of interest are the norm rather than the exception.

I look forward to your early response.

Warm Regards,

Krish

98215 88114

thebravepedestrian.[AT].gmail.com