Municipal raid in city hookah bars

Good Morning Friends. Today is Tuesday, September 09, 2008. My day start with morning walk at 5-30am. I read this news which makes me happy. Our Municipal Corportaion raided hookah bars in the city. Now a days there is growing trend in the addiction of teenagers to hookah bars. AMC’s this step is really highly appreciated. Such steps are require for the betterment of society and culture.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is going hammer and tongs at illegal hookah bars in the city. After witnessing a growing addiction of teenagers to hookah bars and complaints from parents and different quarters, AMC carried out a massive crackdown on these joints which were run under the garb of restaurants.

Health Committee Chairman Praful Raval said, “We have been regularly receiving complaints from parents about the growing menace of hookah bars in the city. These bars are unhealthy for youngsters and pose serious health problems. It also adds to the nuisance value as certain anti-social elements visit these hookah bars.”

“AMC has already sent the stuff seized from these bars to the municipal laboratory for testing. If needed we will also take the help of Forensic Science Laboratory for chemical analysis of the products used for serving in hookahs,” added Raval.

There are around 15-20 hookah bars in West and New West zones of AMC. The health department has started questioning the unhealthy, dingy, closed and smoke-filled rooms posing major health risks to children.

Hookah bars in Navrangpura, IIM road, Vastrapur, Prahaladnagar garden, Wide Angle and one near the Memnagar fire station were raided on Saturday evening. None of these joints had a proper health license from civic authority essential for running a food joint or restaurant.

A senior AMC official said, “All of these hookah bars were served notice on several occasions and also many have court cases pending against them.”

The municipal officials who conducted the raids on Saturday found that the filter in many of the hookahs was being shared by a group and that the filter was never changed in many of the hookah bars.

“We questioned the restaurant staff since the tumblers in which they serve water is also not properly cleaned. In hookah bars the same filter is used by hundreds. Apart from the harm caused by smoking tobacco, the saliva deposits on these unclean filters pose a serious health hazard for youngsters,” said a senior health official.

Last year too, Ahmedabad Police raided three hookah bars in Panjrapol and Satellite areas of the city. This too was after there was much uproar on minors being allowed to smoke at these bars. At that time, police officials had assured of initiating proper action against these errant hookah joints.
However, soon the drive fizzled out and the hookah bars came back into business. On coordination between police and civic body on this issue, an AMC official said, “We will also ask police authorities to book owners for serving tobacco to minors.”