Health Ministry is pro-active, sensitive on tobacco issue: Nadda

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda on Friday said that the Health Ministry is pro-active and sensitive on tobacco issue.

"I personally and my ministry don't agree with Shyama Charan Gupta's statement on tobacco," Nadda said.

"Health Ministry is pro-active and sensitive on tobacco issue," he added.

Earlier in the day, former health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the general public is apprehensive that the Health Ministry has succumbed to the pressure of tobacco lobby and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to increase the size of pictorial warning on tobacco products from 40 percent to 85 percent.

He said that pictorial warning was a prerequisite to create awareness against tobacco consumption among the poor and illiterate people.

"General public feels and they are apprehensive that the health ministry has succumbed to the pressure of tobacco lobby. It doesn't augur well for the country and I urge the Prime Minister to immediately intervene and bring back the notification, increasing the size of warning from 40 to 85 percent," said Ramadoss.

The former Health Minister also voiced his concern over the presence of tobacco baron Shyam Saran Gupta in the parliamentary panel and demanded his sacking as it was a clear case of a conflict of interest.

"The committees are recommending for legislating laws for India and when a person, who has got conflict of interest in the committee, he has to be removed immediately and also-by his ignorant utterances-it is very unfortunate," added Ramadoss.

Gupta, who had earlier argued against tough curbs on tobacco firms, has reportedly denied that he has a beedi (hand-rolled cigarettes) empire.

The Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation is examining the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.