Bhubaneswar: In a drive to curb tobacco menace among the youths of the Capital City, Commissionerate Police on Sunday conducted raids on several Hookah bars at Saheed Nagar, Chandrasekharpur and Infocity area in Bhubaneswar under violation of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.
Acting on a tip-off, police launched a citywide raid on these Hookah bars and tested the used tobacco samples for nicotine.
Police have also sent the flavoured tobacco samples seized from several bars in these areas for examination. “Strict action will be taken after the sample test, based on whether nicotine was found in the tobacco samples,” a police official said.
Along with this, police penalised one of the Hookah bars in the Infocity area after finding the use of banned tobacco products and nicotine in the flavoured samples used in the bar.
Mostly luring the youth, hookah bars are a craze for those who smoke flavoured tobacco with a single or multi-stemmed instrument for recreation.