Indian state of Punjab ups its anti-tobacco crusade

The government of the Indian state of Punjab has constituted an empowered committee to carry forward its crusade against tobacco and ensure implementation of India’s Tobacco Control Act across the state, according to a Press Trust of India story.

But the principal secretary of health, Vini Mahajan, was quoted as saying that the committee would mainly focus on implementation across the state of Section 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which stated that ‘in setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law’.

Mahajan said that when any move was made by the state or central government to implement tobacco control legislation, the tobacco industry tried to scuttle the process by making representations or by otherwise using its influence.

The implementation of regulations requiring pictorial warnings on 85 per cent of both of the main surfaces of tobacco packs had been delayed, allegedly because of such influence.