Bengal paan shop owners protest against Centre s advisory

Kolkata Oct 31 (IANS) Protesting against the Centre s advisory proposing a ban on tobacco and paan shops from selling food items shop owners here on Tuesday said this could lead to a drastic fall in their daily sales and affect their livelihood.

"To avoid a harmful product you can t adopt a blanket ban on all the other products. The advisory issued by the government would adversely affect the livelihood of millions of paan shop owners across the country " Ramlal Bazar Babosayee Samity General Secertary Moloy Biswas said.

The paan shop owners took out a rally on Rani Rashmani Avenue.

"Thousands of paan shop owners who sell tobacco products like gutkha cigarette paan masala and scented tobacco also sell non-tobacco products such as sweets chips fruit cakes and soft drinks. The sales of these consumer goods approximately comprise about 40-50 per cent of retailers daily sales though the sales vary across places " he told IANS.

He said they feared a drastic decline in sales if the proposal was implemented.

--IANS
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