The Government on Friday indicated that it was committed to increasing the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products, even as it dismissed the controversial remarks by two BJP members of a parliamentary panel questioning if there is a link between smoking and cancer.
Though Health Minister JP Nadda did not specify the deadline of implementing the increased size of health warning, he told the lok Sabha that the move was a part of Government strategies to curb tobacco consumption.
The statement came following attack on the Government by the Opposition members over the statements of the two BJP members of the Parliamentary Committee of Subordinate legislation.
“There is a direct relation between the consumption of tobacco and cancer. The Ministry is consistent and crystal clear in its efforts to reduce tobacco consumption. We will go ahead once the panel submits its report,” Nadda said citing studies, including Indian, to buttress his point and rejecting the claims by the panel’s head Dilip Gandhi and member Shyam Charan Gupta. The Government has put on hold its decision asking tobacco firms to introduce pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of packaging for tobacco products from the present stipulated 40 per cent after the panel urged it to wait till it submits its final report. The rule was to come into effect from April 1.
“One of the strategies is to increase the pictorial warning. That has got a little procedural problem, which we are facing at this point of time. But in coming times, we will see to it,” Nadda said.
“But as the Committee gives its report, we are consistent on it as we have given it in our reply, we will go ahead. That is what we can assure,” he said adding “We have told them very clearly that tobacco has got a direct connection with carcinogenic and has a direct connection with cancer.”
Expressing concern over the BJP MPs’ claims, Supriya Sule (NCP) said her family had suffered from oral cancer, a reference to her father and party head Sharad Pawar who was treated for cancer.