'Withdraw notification for larger warning on tobacco products'

Farmers' body FAIFA today asked the Centre to withdraw the notification directing a bigger pictorial health warning message on tobbaco products from April 1 next year, saying the move will an adverse impact on domestic players.
The Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) said the move would impact tobacco farmers in the country.
"We appeal to the government to reconsider the proposal on 85 per cent graphical health warning notification which has been pushed by NGOs with vested interests. The pictorial warnings are harming the interests of domestic farmers, as consumers prefer smuggled foreign cigarettes which do not have picture warnings," FAIFA President B V Javare Gowda said in a statement.

It said the FAIFA members will appeal to Ministry of Finance, Commerce, Labour and Employment, Parliamentary Affairs, the BJP President and the leaders of opposition for immediate correction of "unfriendly policies" and withdrawal of the proposed notification.
The association said that the government should not blindly follow the claims of anti-tobacco lobby as most of the lobby is funded by foreign sources.
"There has been a concerted effort by some of the foreign players with vested interests to see India converting from a tobacco exporter to a net tobacco importer, as India is the second largest tobacco consuming country in the world after China," it said.

It also claimed that there was a quantum jump in the illegal sales of smuggled cigarettes which is leading to reduced sale of home grown tobacco and due to this farmers get affected, who are facing the irrational and arbitrary policies, FAIFA added.
"Tobacco has remained an important cash crop for Indian farmers as it is immune to climate variations and can grow in irrigation deficient regions. The livelihood of countless farmer families depends on cultivation of tobacco," it said.
Pictorial health warning on packages of tobacco products will become bigger from April 1 next year. A notification to this effect was issued in September by the Health Ministry saying that all tobacco products will carry warnings covering 85 per cent of the package area, up from 40 per cent at present.