Ministry under pressure to revise anti-tobacco Act

NEW DELHI: In a startling revelation indicating the disturbance in the tobacco industry due to anti-smoking laws, the Union health ministry has told the central information commission (CIC) that companies were putting “pressure” on it to revise the anti-tobacco Act.

“There is pressure on the ministry to revise the anti-tobacco Act,” the ministry’s central public information officer submitted before central information commissioner Annapurna Dixit hearing an RTI application.

Applicant Shanmuga Patro has sought recommendations and reports on the basis of which amendments were made in the cigarettes and other tobacco products Act.
The ministry also said in its affidavit that several cases were pending before the Himachal Pradesh high court relating to the public benefit law.

Dixit accepted the plea and asked the ministry to forward Patro’s application to parliament, so that affidavits filed by the government in the high court, in the case, could be provided to him.

Last month, the ministry gave its nod to labelling cigarette and bidi retail packs with gory pictures of cancer and other diseases caused due to tobacco consumption from December 1.

The government has relaxed the norm for big bidi packets, allowing manufacturers to display specified health warnings on retail packs only.

The government was suspected to have fallen to the plea of some industry associations, including the All-India Bidi Industries Federation, and extended the relief.
b_rakesh@dnaindia.net