Over 500 organisations have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly advocating the implementation of new pictorial warnings on all tobacco packs from April 1.
The appeal comes amid demands from tobacco companies for reconsideration of the Government order to have pictorial warnings on both sides and covering 85 per cent of the pack. Representatives of women groups, youth associations, hospitals, self-help groups and voluntary organisations were among those who sent 4,000 signed letters to the PM.
Various eminent international public health organisations working on tobacco control and cancer issues had earlier written to Modi and Health Minister JP Nadda on the issue.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on October 15 last year had issued a notification directing tobacco manufacturing companies to devote at least 85 per cent of the surface areas of all tobacco products on both sides to graphically and literally represent the statutory warning.