Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration has invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Gutka manufacturers, treating the banned substance's production and sale as organised crime rather than a routine regulatory violation.
FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe said Gutka has been prohibited in Maharashtra since 2004 under Section 30 of the Food Safety Act. "Once it is prohibited, its manufacture, transport, storage, and sale cannot take place," he said.
Mundhe said the decision to invoke MCOCA, a law generally used against terrorists and organised crime syndicates, followed the discovery of a wide network of individuals working together across the supply chain. "There are multiple players, manufacturers, transporters, sellers, working in a nexus. It is organised crime," he said.
MCOCA applies to prohibited activities involving punishment of more than three years, some of which attract life imprisonment, and requiring more than two people to be involved. Mundhe said the FDA has already registered more than 700 FIRs related to Gutka violations across the state, forming the basis for invoking the stringent law.
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The FDA is now compiling individual dossiers on everyone linked to the trade, from manufacturers to transporters and sellers, as it builds cases under MCOCA. Mundhe said the objective is to eliminate the substance entirely from the state. "We are creating dossiers on every individual involved, and once ready, we will go to any extent to ensure not a single gram of Gutka is available in Maharashtra," he said.
The crackdown on Gutka forms part of a broader enforcement push by the FDA under Mundhe, who has also targeted milk and dairy products, the hotel and restaurant industry, and spurious drugs since taking charge of the department. He said the department's approach stems from poor implementation of existing food safety law over the years. The Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006, along with regulations framed in 2011 and 2018, has suffered from weak enforcement, prompting the FDA to take strict action across all sectors it regulates, including Gutka, dairy, and pharmaceuticals.
Mundhe said the scale of Maharashtra's food business ecosystem, with more than 11 lakh registered food business operators in the state, underlines the need for firm regulatory action against banned and harmful products moving through informal networks. He maintained that enforcement under his tenure has been proportionate rather than excessive, given the health risks posed by unchecked distribution of prohibited substances such as Gutka.
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