Anti-Smoking Lobby Makes Presence Felt
The anti-smoking lobby made its presence felt significantly at the annual general meeting of tobacco major ITC Ltd, by throwing up questions related to adherence to advertising norms and sponsorships of sporting events by cigarette companies.
ITC chairman Yogesh Chander Deveshwar justified the company's activities by saying that 85 per cent of value-addition in the cigarette industry accrues to the exchequer at various levels and this way ITC is indirectly contributing towards the social sector.
At the company's AGM on Wednesday, Pune-based Visheshwar Raste, a voluntary anti-smoking activist, who interestingly was also an ITC shareholder, questioned why the cigarette company was into sponsoring sports events, when both the fields had nothing in common. He chose the occasion to point out the fact that the world's tobacco giants spent large amounts of money cultivating a clientele that found the hyped-up mystique and allure of the cigarette as a fashion statement. He warned that when serious measures are eventually taken, like restricting or banning cigarette advertising and sponsorship or making cigarette manufacturers liable for the damage to the health of active and passive smokers, shareholders will hold the directors of the company responsible for having ignored the writing on the wall.
Deveshwar said that unlike the tobacco giants in the West, who have been made to pay for damages for coming up with findings, a result of research and development, which encourage persons to smoke, ITC is only catering to a demand that is there for cigarettes. It is not involved in any activity related to research and development. "We will always abide by the law," he said. One of the shareholders also suggested that ITC must make a special provision of Rs 1,000 crore for persons who may be dying out of smoking cigarettes. "Tobacco is a sunset industry and according to WHO, if current trends continue, the annual death toll from smoking would rise from 3.5 to 10 million by 2025, exceeding AIDS, TB, automobile accidents and homicides," said Raste.