Demand withdrawal of proposed warnings on tobacco packs
Demand withdrawal of proposed warnings on tobacco packs
Tobacco-growing farmers, under the aegis of the Federation of All-India Farmers’ Associations, on Tuesday held a protest against health activists and sought a CBI probe into their activities.
Claiming that they are reeling under huge debt burden, which has led to a spate of suicides among fellow tobacco farmers, the farmers’ body handed over a memorandum on the issue to Union health minister J.P. Nadda.
The group said that the farmers belonging to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan and engaged in cultivation of cash crops took part in the protest in front of Nirman Bhavan here. They also submitted a memorandum to Mr Dilip Gandhi, who heads the parliamentary committee on tobacco.
In their appeal to the Central government, the group sought withdrawal of proposed graphical health warnings on tobacco packaging, which envisages a revision in the existing warning from 40 per cent of the pack front to 85 of both sides of the pack.
“FAIFA members will also appeal to the ministries of finance, commerce, labour & employment and parliamentary affairs, BJP president and the Leaders of Opposition to demand immediate correction of unfriendly policies and withdrawal of the proposed notification on graphical health warnings,” said Mr B.V. Javare Gowda, president, FAIFA.
The leaders of farmers’ associations also cautioned the Central government that the claims of anti-tobacco lobby should not be blindly followed, as most of them are funded by foreign sources. “Even those who are not directly funded, their motives need to be investigated. There has been a concerted effort by some of the foreign players with vested interests to see India converting from a tobacco exporter to a net tobacco importer, as India is the second largest tobacco consuming country in the world after China,” he added. The FAIFA representatives also appealed to the Centre that the recent quantum jump in the illegal sales of smuggled cigarettes, which are not only made of cheap quality but often do not carry any pictorial warning, is evidence of a faulty policy design perpetrated by wrong propaganda of the health activists.
“Since 2009, when pictorial warnings were first introduced, illicit and contraband cigarette market in India has increased by over five billion sticks. According to the latest Ficci study, currently illicit and contraband cigarettes occupy 21 per cent of the market and result in a revenue loss of more than '9,000 crore per annum to the exchequer,” said Mr Gowda.
