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Issue 7

Tobacco Control in India


Fortnightly News Summary 1-12 December 2008

NATIONAL HEADLINES of alcoholic and tobacco products. (Source: Press Trust of India:
4December 2008)
♦ Pictorial warning on tobacco products not during
UPA tenure: Ramadoss STATE HEADLINES, West Bengal
Admitting defeat in ensuring pictorial health warnings on
packets of cigarettes and other tobacco products, India's ♦ Smoking ban, really? Do we care, ask Kolkata
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Saturday said the
residents
decision has been deferred by at least six months -- by
It’s been two months since a ban was imposed on
when the current United Progressive Alliance government
smoking in public but here, in this crowded and chaotic
would have finished its term. (Source: The Hindu: 2 December
2008) metropolis, the ban order seems to have gone up in
smoke with the enforcing agencies loathe to cracking the
whip and lack of cooperation from citizens.
♦ Deferment of pictorial warnings gives beedi (Source: The Statesman: Kolkata, West Bengal: 3 December 2008)
workers a breather
The Union ministry of health and family welfare has ♦ Coordination makes smoke-free Barabati match
deferred its plan to enforce legislation that stipulates possible
printing of pictorial warning on beedi packets and tobacco The Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI)-Aparajita
products by six months, giving a breather to the beedi along with the commissioner of police and the Orissa
industry that employs 10 million workers across the Cricket Association (OCA) coordinated among themselves
country. The All India Beedi Industry Federation had last to ensure the same. An anti-tobacco campaign was also
month said that as many as one million workers, mostly organized at the sporting event.
women, employed in the industry will lose their jobs in the (Source: The Statesman : Kolkata, West Bengal: 3 December 2008)
next few months as a recent ban on smoking in public
places, together with the display of pictorial warnings on ♦ Cenvat rate cut not to cover tobacco products:
packs, will discourage tobacco consumption, triggering a
Finance Ministry
fall in sales. (Source: Live Mint News: 5 December 2008)
There is no relief on the wallet for smokers and users of
♦ Tobacco warning may be postpone tobacco products. The 4 percentage-point Cenvat rate cut
announced by the Government on Sunday as part of the
The warning, due to be implemented from December 1,
fiscal stimulus package does not cover tobacco products,
was deferred to May 31 at a meeting on Monday.
the Finance Ministry has said. “No change has been
According to sources, the beedi industry issued a strike
made in the excise duty rates on petroleum products,
notice and this triggered the meeting. (Source: The Times of
India: 2 December 2008) specific rated items and tobacco products,” a Central
Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) official said. (Source:
Hindu Business Line, West Bengal: 9 December 2008)
♦ Court won’t interfere with order on pictorial
warning on tobacco packs ♦ Ramadoss writes to me daily: CM
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has refused to Chief Minister Bud-dhadeb Bhattacharjee revealed that he
interfere with an order passed by a single judge vacating had been receiving requests from Union Health Minister
the interim stay on Labelling Rules notified by the Centre Anbumani Ramadoss to quit smoking. "Everyday I receive
on March 15 making it mandatory to print specified letters from the Union Health Minister, saying — give up
pictorial warnings in cigarette and other tobacco packets. smoking, give up smoking," said the chief minister. He
(Source: The Hindu: 2 December 2008)
was speaking at an event of the Federation of Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) at a hotel
♦ Poor in India-China have limited access to cardio- in Kolkata.
treatment (Source: Indian Express, Kolkata, West Bengal: 3 December 2008)
Cardiovascular epidemic is making inroads in many low-
and middle-income countries (LMIC) like India and China, ♦ Cigarette war in Kolkata
but the poor have limited or no access to treatment Calcutta is witnessing a cigarette war, with a New Delhi-
facilities. Disease risk factors like obesity, high blood based company hurlaing charges of arm-twisting at
pressure, tobacco smoking and diabetes, are on the distributors of a big player. Godfrey Phillips India Ltd,
increase in LMICs. (Source: Indo-Asian News Service: 4December which last week re-entered the Calcutta cigarette market
2008) after 15 years, says the distributors are buying entire
stocks of its products from shops and destroying them.
♦ Govt. Turns down request of broadcasters on (Source: The Telegraph, Kolkata, West Bengal: 8 December 2008)

surrogate advertisement
Government has not acceded to the request of private ♦ Vehicles being used as smoking way
broadcasters to withdraw its notification prohibiting The private vehicles at public places are now being used
surrogate advertising on television. In a written reply to as a smoking bay after it has been prohibited at public
Lok Sabha here today, Minister of State for Information places. The most prominent places where cars are being
and Broadcasting Anand Sharma said that Indian extensively used for smoking purpose are at signal
Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) in a representation to the crossings, parking areas, and other public vicinities where
ministry dated March 31, 2008 had requested it to cars can reach, for those chain smokers who have been
withdraw the notification prohibiting surrogate advertising hit by the new anti-smoking law at public places. As per

Provided by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use


Issue 7
data available, from 2 Oct, 2008 to 3 Dec, 2008, 3965
public places have been raided and Rs 2,75,835 has been
collected as fine. (Source: The Statesman, Kolkata, West Bengal: 8
December 2008)

Provided by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use

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