Ramadoss to seek hike in budget of anti-tobacco campaign

Union health minster Anbumani Ramadoss said on Monday, his ministry will seek a hike in budgetary allocation for the anti-tobacco campaign and plans to use part of cess collected from tobacco sales for the purpose.

Instead of focusing purely on carrot-and-stick policy to implement the no-smoking rule, the Government would seek to intensify its public awareness programme to ensure the enforcement of no-smoking rule in the country, he said.

The campaign would involve a lot more enforcers in the form of members of parliament, MLAs, panchayats, teachers, among others to drive the no-smoking rule apart from punitive measures, the minister said while unveiling an anti-tobacco rally at Bangalore Medical College in Bangalore.

"There is going to be a lot more noise made about it," he said through school forums, NGOs and other similar forms.

Currently, the budgetary allocation for anti-tobacco campaign was Rs 450 crore and he would seek to increase it by another Rs 100-125 crore annually to push it forward. The ministry was also planning to use part of the five per cent cess collected from tobacco sale for the campaign, he said.

Citing the success of the anti-smoking rule abroad, he said, "90 per cent was achieved by public awareness and voluntary compliance and 10 per cent by the authorities."

He hoped that the no-smoking rule in India would achieve a similar success through intensified public awareness programme, forcing smokers to give up smoking in public places rather than face the wrath of the public.

He was optimistic that the campaign if sustained for another six months would yield the desired results. "It will trigger a chain reaction," he said.

The minister said tobacco killed five million world wide of which one million were Indians. A WHO survey revealed that 14.1 per cent of 13 to 15-year-olds take to tobacco.

The minister claimed even some smokers had appreciated the no-smoking rule as it had forced them to reduce consumption of tobacco and provided an opportunity to quit the butt.

On the issue of alcohol, Ramadoss lauded Karnataka on being the third state to take up measures to curb alcohol use and promised to extend all support in this regard.

Calling for more stringent policies to curb use of alcohol, he said nearly 40 per cent of road accidents happened due to alcohol. There were also number of crimes related to alcohol consumption.

He also commended the state government for curbing sale of aerated drinks in school campuses and called for similar moves in other states. This was essential "in view of growing obesity among children and appearance of juvenile diabetes," he said.