Several bars in the city have taken hookah off their menu while police raided some of the establishments and arrested four persons on Saturday and Sunday.
The owner of one of the hookah bars said the police called them on Saturday asking them to stop serving hookah.
The owner of another bar said he called up the police to know what to do and was told that all decisions on enforcement of the hookah ban, announced by mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday, were being taken by Lalbazar and the local police station might not be in the know. The owner said he decided to stop offering hookah.
Officials of two other hookah bars said they stopped serving hookah after hearing about the mayor’s announcement.
Hakim had on Friday said no new licences would be issued for hookah bars and all existing licences would stand cancelled.
He said on Saturday that Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) would issue a notice within a fortnight banning all hookah bars in the city.
The city police have arrested four persons from three hookah bars in the last two days. The bars that were raided were on Bidhan Sarani in the Tallah police station area, Muzaffar Ahmed Street in the Park Street police station area and Rajdanga Main Road in Kasba.
Four hookah sets have been seized, the police said.
All the cases have been registered under Sections 188 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 20(2) of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003. All the sections are bailable.
The manager of the Kasba hookah bar who was arrested on Saturday night was produced in the Alipore court on Sunday. He has been granted bail against a personal bond of Rs 10,000, a source in the court said.
“We received a call from the office of the deputy commissioner of police on Saturday asking us to stop offering hookah. We have since stopped serving hookah. We are only serving food,” said Ayaz Ahmed, owner of La Letizia Cafe and Restro on Beckbagan Row in south Kolkata.
There are three cafes in the building that houses La Letizia. All of them have stopped serving hookah, said Sahil Khan, owner of Koyla Cafe and Lounge, housed in the Beckbagan Row building.
“I enquired with the police and they said steps would be taken by Lalbazar. I do not want to get into any trouble and so decided to stop serving hookah. I will wait and see what the government decides,” said Khan.
Mintelaa, a cafe in Minto Park, is among those that have stopped offering hookah to patrons.
Rahul De, who identified himself as the in-charge of the place over the phone, said they stopped serving hookah after hearing about Hakim’s announcement.
A representative of Olterra, Park Street, said on Sunday: “We have stopped serving hookah. No one is serving hookah on Park Street.”
The owner of a hookah bar had earlier said that many such bars did not have a licence from the KMC to serve hookah. The owners, he said, are running hookah bars following a verbal nod from the local police.
“No separate licence was issued for a hookah bar. The licence to operate a hookah bar was given in addition to the one for running a cafe or a restaurant,” said a KMC official.
