‘Punjab not implementing pictorial warning rules on tobacco packets’

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 17

Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an organisation running anti-tobacco campaigns, has lamented that the rule of having 85 per cent pictorial warning on tobacco products was not being implemented in Punjab.

Patron of VoTV, Dr Prahlad Duggal, said it was surprising to note that as per the Health Ministry, the implementation of pictorial warning of 85 per cent should have been displayed on both sides of all tobacco packets from April 1.

He said even as two weeks had already passed, the tobacco companies were still selling the same old packets. He said implementing the Central Government’s orders, the governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Goa had seized tobacco products worth crores of rupees but the Punjab Government had failed to take any action in this regard.

Duggal said in Punjab, around 8 lakh people used cigarettes and around 9 lakh smoked bidis, while around 13.5 lakh people used tobacco-chewing products. A cancer specialist, Dr Prahlad Duggal said most of the cancers were caused by tobacco. He stressed the need for creating awareness among the people against the use of tobacco. Effective strategies such as implementation of 85 per cent pictorial pack warnings wold discourage the children and youth from consuming tobacco.

He said that in view of the vast economical burden of cancer treatment in the state, the government must initiate to check usage of tobacco and seriously implement the directives to discourage the usage.