Even as the anti-tobacco groups are pitching in for a bigger pictorial/graphical health warning on tobacco products to educate tobacco users on the dangers of its use, the Federation of Karnataka Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Association has opposed the recommendation and urged the Centre not to include this suggestion in the proposed amendment to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. “There is a move to increase the size of the statutory health warning either pictorially or graphically on tobacco products to 85 per cent from the current 40 per cent on both sides of the pack. This step will pose hurdles in identifying genuine and fake/illegal cigarette packs, leading to spurt in the sale of banned cigarettes in the market,” said association president B.V. Javare Gowda.
Addressing presspersons here, he claimed that India is the 5{+t}{+h}biggest market for contraband cigarettes and said the move on the size of statutory warning on cigarette packs could boost their sales. Accusing the NGOs of carrying misleading campaigns against Indian tobacco farmers, he said some Indian NGOs, with the support of global anti-tobacco foundations, were pushing for policies which, Mr. Gowda termed “illogical, irrational and that which cannot be implemented.”
The campaigners, who operate from cities and metros, do not have the understanding of rural India and the impact of their campaigns on the livelihood of growers.
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