The Union Health Ministry is consistent in its stand and committed to implementing printing larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products, Union Health Ministry J. P. Nadda has said.
“We have given our view. The Parliamentary Committee is examining it and we stand by our view,” he said at a press conference here on Sunday.
Replying to questions, he said: “Let’s wait for the recommendations of the committee and not anticipate it.”
The Parliamentary Committee as a whole had to give its collective view and we will not go by individual views, he said.
Earlier this month the Health Ministry had kept in abeyance increasing the size of the warning to 85 per cent following the recommendation of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation examining the Provisions of Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.
The comments of BJP MP and Parliamentary Committee chairman Dilip Gandhi that research in India had shown no link between cancer and tobacco evoked widespread criticism.
Subsequently it was reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed the printing of larger warnings.
Mr. Nadda, in charge of BJP for Andhra Pradesh, was here to participate in the State executive committee meeting of the party.
