Issue 9
Tobacco Control in India
Fortnightly News Summary
NATIONAL HEADLINES
♦ Ramadoss to seek increase in anti-tobacco
campaign budget
Union Health Minster Anbumani Ramadoss said his
ministry will seek an increase in budgetary allocation for
the anti-tobacco campaign and plans to use part of cess
collected from tobacco sales for the purpose. The
campaign would involve a lot more enforcers in the form
of members of parliament, MLAs, panchayats, teachers,
among others to drive the no-smoking rule apart from
punitive measures, the minister said while unveiling an
anti-tobacco rally at Bangalore Medical College here.
(Source: Business Standard: 6 January 2009)
♦ Tobacco FDI attracts global lobby
International governments and global tobacco players
from Switzerland, Japan and the US have come together
to lobby against a government move to ban Foreign Direct
Investment in tobacco. India currently allows up to 100 per
cent FDI in this sector, but the health ministry has moved
a draft note for the cabinet to ban foreign investment in
this sector. This move is likely to re-focus attention on a
proposal from Japan Tobacco International (JTIL), which
has applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to
raise its stake in its Indian venture from 50 to 74 per cent.
(Source: Business Standard: 15 January 2009)
♦ Beedi makers’ plea made us defer photo pictorial
warning scheme: govt
The pressure mounted by beedi industry and other
interested parties on the Union Health Ministry seems to
be working as the government has linked its decision to
defer implementation of the proposed depiction of pictorial
warnings on tobacco products to their pleas. (Source: Zee
News: 10 January 2009)
♦ Smoking norms has no meaning in UP
Even after the imposition of the Anti Smoking Act,
smoking was found to be rampant in many government /
private offices and other public places in Lucknow, the
capital city of Uttar Pradesh. (Source: Dainik Jagran: 26
December 2008)
♦ Ban on smoking in public places goes up in smoke
The ambitious ban on smoking in public places has failed
to take off in a majority of states. Ever since October 2,
when the ban formally came into force, only eight
states/UTs have started imposing fines on those caught
violating the law. Repeated reminders by the Union health
ministry to large states like West Bengal and Maharashtra
to implement the ban in toto have fallen on deaf ears.
(Source: The Times of India: 31 December 2008)
♦ After months of smoking ban, Chhattisgarh yet to
file a case
Chhattisgarh police, yet to register a maiden case against
a smoker even after three months of ban on smoking in
public places, say they have more serious jobs in hand in
the Maoist insurgency-hit state.Top officers at the police
headquarters here said the state police, having a strength
of nearly 40,000 personnel for nearly 20.08 million
Provided by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use
3-16 January 2009
population, were still looking for the first case against a
smoker. (Source: IANS: 16 December 2008)
STATE HEADLINES
♦ Government admits to tobacco industry pressure in
an RTI
Pictorial warnings on tobacco products are intended to
increase consumer knowledge of the deadly health effects
of tobacco consumption, to encourage cessation and to
discourage uptake. In India they also break the linguistic
and cultural barrier, in addition to informing the illiterate
population (a large proportion of this segment smokes
bidis) about the harmful effects of tobacco use. (Source: PR
Wire News, New Delhi, Delhi: 14 January 2009)
♦ Devgan lights a smoke & a controversy
Taking cognisance of a news report highlighting actor Ajay
Devgan smoking at a public place, published in a section
of the Press, activists of an NGO have filed a complaint
against him with the police. Chandigarh is a smoke-free
city and anybody is liable to face action under the
provisions of the Cigarettes and Other. “This attracts
provisions of Section 21 of the Act. He should also be
penalised for violating law,” a legal expert said. (Source: The
Tribune, Chandigarh: 7January 2009)
♦ Smoke law: No ifs, only butts
Maintenance officials have found dozens of cigarette butts
and bidi-ends littering the corridors of the department of
legal affairs, months after India introduced a smoking ban
in public places drafted with the department’s help.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, a known smoker, may be glad
to know he has friends in Delhi, though. The Bengal chief
minister has had difficulty not only in quitting smoking in
office but also in enforcing other bans to cut harmful
smoke — such as a high court-dictated one on polluting
autos. The Centre introduced the smoking ban on October
2 last year, extending it to private buildings to cover all
workplaces. Violation brings a Rs 200 fine.
(Source: The Telegraph, Kolkata, West Bengal: 16 January 2009)
♦ Bombay HC admits case against Big B for violating
tobacco law
Bombay High Court on Wednesday admitted a case
against megastar Amitabh Bachchan and others for
violating anti-tobacco laws in Goa. Goa bench of the High
Court observed that there was a prima facie case against
Bachchan and others, for violation of the Tobacco Control
Law, in a criminal complaint filed by an non-government
organization (NGO). (Source: The Times of India, Mumbai,
Maharashtra: 15 January 2009
♦ Protest by bidi workers association
Members of the Bidi Workers’ Association of Madhya
Pradesh sat on a dharna outside the Secretariat in
Bhopal, on Sunday, the 11th of January, 2009. They were
demanding a BSP ticket for their leader Sunendra Tewari
for the Satna Lok Sabha seat. A large number of workers
associated with the bidi industry, including several women,
requested the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), to make
‘employment for all’ the main point of their election
manifesto. (Source: Daily News Activist, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: 12
January 2009)
 Issue 9

Provided by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use