FDA SEIZES GUTKA WORTH 10 LAKHS AT PONDA

PONDA: The food and drugs administration (FDA) on Saturday seized gutka packets worth about 10 lakh stocked in a house at Ponda. The sale of gutka is banned in Goa.  On Saturday morning at 7am FDA officials seized the gutka packets worth Rs 9.85 lakh that were stocked in the residence of Ravindra Matkar and his wife Rohini at Bethoda, Ponda.

FDA inspectors Abel Rodrigues and Rajiv Korde, also found stocks of gutka in two vehicles, a public carrier and a car, that were parked outside their house.

Both vehicles and gutka stocks have also been seized by the FDA. The public carrier's license which was issued by the RTO had expired on May 5, 2011. The couple have been booked under the Goa Public Health Act. This is the fifth time that Ravindra has been booked for the offence. The house in which the gutka was stored is in the name of his wife.

FDA officials said that the gutka had entered the state through a India transport vehicle on Friday from Kolhapur. "We had received information that a India transport truck fully loaded would be entering the state with gutka packets worth 10 lakh. We waited for the vehicle to arrive for almost 8 hours from 3 am to 12 pm on Friday, but in vain. However, we had alerted our officials, who intercepted the vehicle at Matkar's residence at Bethoda at about 3am on Saturday," said sources. The officials were waiting at Mandovi bridge. "We suspect that someone would have leaked out the information and they must have taken some other route to reach Bethoda. The Matkar's sell the gutka to the local dealers, mostly paan wallahs, at a higher rate than the price that is printed on the packet,'' added sources.

In another raid on Saturday, the FDA food inspectors intercepted a Tata vehicle at Davli junction in Ponda and seized stock worth 1.20 lakh of 'Ma dhu chhap khaini' from one Hararam Choudhary, who is in-charge of K K Roadlines at Margao. He didn't disclose for whom the 'khaini' was brought in the vehicle. The FDA has booked an offence against Choudhary under the Goa Public Health Act, 2005, for stocking and distributing gutka.