Two different bans; two different approaches.

While the state government is leaving no stone unturned to make prohibition successful, it seems lacking in zeal to implement the ban on gutka and pan masala.

A couple of days after the state government extended the ban on pan masala and gutka for another year, The Telegraph found the banned products blatantly being sold in the Patna Junction area.

The state government banned pan masala and gutka for the first time on May 31, 2012, World Tobacco Day.

The government's decision to ban these products was touted as landmark, as Bihar became the third Indian state after Kerala and Madhya Pradesh to ban these. However, in the lanes and bylanes of Patna, anyone would find the ban simply exists on paper.

What's even more surprising that those selling tobacco claim that the authorities concerned hardly come for inspections.

"Regular inspections are not carried out, so we can do our business without any tension," said a pan shop owner in the Patna Junction area, who obviously didn't want to give his name.

Another pan shop owner, who was also found selling pan masala and gutka in the same locality, said: "Ban to sirf naam ka hai. (The ban is only in name). We are selling tobacco for the past four years without any problem."

R.K. Mahajan, principal secretary, health, admitted that the ban on pan masala and gutka had not been implemented effectively. He promised that the department would take stern action against violators from now on.

"We are going to conduct surprise raids. What happened in the past won't be repeated," Mahajan said.

The government has relied on the fear factor for implementing prohibition with stringent laws and checks. But shops selling banned tobacco products face no such crackdown. Even the figures suggest that the government is more serious about implementing prohibition while it is doing little to implement the tobacco ban.

As per the figures available with the health department's food safety wing, cases have been lodged against only 56 people for pan masala and gutka-related ban in the state in the past five months while around 2,700 people have been arrested under different sections for violation of prohibition since it came into force.

So far as action in the tobacco ban is concerned, only Patna looks in a good position as 41 cases have been booked against violators in the past five months while in other districts the situation looks grim. In Bhagalpur and Saran divisions, only one case has been lodged each while in Magadh and Munger divisions, only two cases have been lodged each during the period.

The officials who are supposed to enforce the pan masala and gutka ban said they had insufficient manpower. "There are only 14 food safety offices in the whole state, who have to conduct raids at the tobacco shops and subsequently lodge cases against the violators in the court while there are 9,000 personnel working in 900 police stations to book the violators of prohibition act. As per the government's directive, even officials of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), who look after security of border areas, can frisk and check people and if they find any violator, they have to hand over the violators to the police stations. The government is much serious about implementing liquor ban but all the 14 food safety officers have been given charge of two to six districts. It is impossible for us to implement the ban effectively because of manpower issues," said a food safety officer on condition of anonymity.

He added: "Can you imagine we have to travel to two to three districts? Is it possible for us to frequently visit all the districts at the same time?"

Another food safety official said: "We are also engaged in other duties. At present, I have been engaged in the counting of panchayat polls. Earlier, I was engaged as a patrolling magistrate in the panchayat polls. Apart from this, we also have to conduct regular raids to collect food samples from various city restaurants. We also have to look after the issue of licence for any new food joint. We have been assigned so many responsibilities but have been given no extra hand."

The food safety officials claimed that many times their demand for requisition for police was not entertained.

About the health hazards of gutka and pan masala, Manisha Singh, head of the chemotherapy unit at Mahavir Cancer Hospital, said both the tobacco products were reasons behind most of the oral, head and neck cancer cases: "When you consume tobacco in any form, it affects throughout the tract through which it passes. It affects all your organs. Drinking alcohol might give you liver cirrhosis but tobacco has direct affect on body as it causes oral cancer."

Manisha admitted that she found patients chewing tobacco at the hospital on many occasions even when they came for treatment: "We started wondering what would happen to them. On one hand they are getting treatment, on the other they are chewing tobacco. The government should implement its ban."

Experts claimed that the government had no intention to make the pan masala and gutka ban effective because it did not have "political mileage".

"The state banned gutka and pan masala for the first time in 2012. Since then, the food safety commissioner is extending the ban period for one year every time the ban period finished. Why cannot the government ban both the gutka and pan masala permanently by getting a cabinet approval? What is preventing the government from doing so? This is because the government is not going to get any political mileage from this issue as far as it can garner from alcohol ban," said Deepak Mishra, executive director, Socio-Economic and Educational Development Society. "There should be a food safety official at block level but there are only 14 food safety officials across the state. It completely shows the government's intentions towards implementing the ban on gutka and pan masala."

Indian Medical Association state president Sachchidannad Kumar said: "Putting a ban on various things has become a government's propaganda to garner vote. The government, however, does not look concerned about implementing the (chewing tobacco) ban."

The Opposition also took a dig at the government for failing to ban pan masala and gutka.

BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said: "The state government is not taking an interest in implementing ban on gutka and pan masala because they won't get any political mileage from it like alcohol."