.... the brain is not a vessel to be filled,
It is something to be IGNITED

Another U-Turn by MoH
 

Graphic warnings on tobacco packages likely to be delayed under mysterious circumstances

It has become a routine with the "Ministry of Health & family Welfare." First; announce an initiative amid a lot of noise and fanfare and then; forget about it; if possible keep it delaying for time immemorial. When initiatives are announced, they are given wide media coverage, and when they are diluted and/or buried under the stacks of time, it's hidden from the public. The ever gullible public thinks that their government has done something wonderful. Mysterious forces seem to work on all seemingly good tobacco related initiatives and they somehow gets diluted and/or scraped. This happened with the "Tobacco in movies law" (One of the basis on which the Government of India won the Luther Terry award) and now it's happening with the uniform "Graphic Display Warnings" on all tobacco packages.

Once again it has been proved that the tobacco lobby has a better control of the Indian Health Ministry (Like in many others places across the world) than the public health organizations. In an unfortunate development, the rules which made it mandatory to carry pictorial warnings covering 50% of the tobacco product packages have been postponed for unknown reasons. Will this also follow the same fate as of the much talked about “Movie Rules” announced on May 31 2005, needs to be seen. The (Movie & tobacco) rules announced in 2005 have been postponed a record 11 times and even when the notification of 20th October 2006 notifies the rules once again, it fails to mention the date from which these rules will apply, making the rules nothing more than poor quality toilet paper (As some of our frustrated volunteers say).

Without questioning, this all satisfies the tobacco industry. It may be noted that while the tobacco industry can have the entire health ministry on its knees in a single day just by addressing a representation to the health ministry (MoH), the public health workers and organizations have to work for years to get even the most basic relief. Tobacco industry representatives can just walk through the doors of the officials of the MoH but representatives of NGO’s have to wait for hours outside the door of the officials before they can get a couple of minutes of audience. MoH people are often too busy to meet the public health workers (Who are doing the job which MoH officials are supposed to do) but always available for the tobacco industry representatives.

It may be mentioned that the Indian pictorial health warning rules were not adopted as a matter of routine by the Indian government; concerned citizens had to file a writ petition in the High Court for implementation of the provisions of pictorial warnings. The case went on for two years before the Indian Government (Ministry of Health) gave an undertaking (Along with a copy of the notification) to the court stating that the new rules on pictorial warning will come into effect from Feb. 1, 2007. On the previous hearing (Preceding the decision) the High Court judge was very agitated by the fact that the Ministry of Health was delaying the rules and had specifically asked the representative of the government in the open court, “What is the tobacco industry giving you to delay the notification?”

The recent decision of the Ministry of Health to postpone the pictorial warning rules and further consider some more representation by the tobacco industry is just not incorrect but also a fit case of misleading the High Court and a case for contempt of court (Since the MoH had supplied a copy of the rules to the High Court along with an undertaking on the basis of which the writ petition was decided).

We registered our protest and wrote to the Health Ministry (The minister and all concerned officials) and reasoned for not delaying the graphic warning rules any further. Once again, we didn't even receive an acknowledgement whereas when the tobacco industry wrote (Protesting about the rules) to the MoH, they were called for a (secret) "High tea" and subsequently the law was postponed.

Read the letter we wrote to the MoH and the PM.

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss
Minister of Health & Family Welfare
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
Room No. 345, A "Wing"
Nirman Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road
New Delhi-110011

Dear Dr. Ramadoss,

From your recent statements which appeared in a few national newspapers and also from the information the undersigned has from the Ministry of Health, we understand that Government of India’s Ministry of Health is considering postponing the implementation of the gazette notification number G.S.R. 402(E) dated July 5, 2006 relating to graphic warnings on tobacco packages.

We would like to mention that any proposal to further delay implementation of rules relating to graphic warnings on tobacco packages shall be very unfortunate as the civil society has not only fought the hard battle on this issue at various forums but concerned citizens also had to go to the "Himachal Pradesh High Court" by way of a "Public Interest Civil Writ Petition" to get the pictorial warnings rules as prescribed in the "Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003" notified.

We have come to know that the decision to delay the notification has been taken because some tobacco companies have written a few letters to MoH and have put in some pressure through certain influential people. This is quite unfortunate and we protest to this kind of special favour accorded to the tobacco industry. In the last 3 years (Since the new tobacco control legislation came into force) we have given scores of representations to the MoH but still we have never been called for a meeting on the basis of our representation and have never ever received reply to even a single letter/representation. However the tobacco companies and their allies mysteriously get result for every letter they write and also get red-carpet invitation. Their representatives get VIP treatment in MoH whereas no one seems to have any time for the representatives of the civil society working on tobacco control. Such disparity is quite painful and the undersigned is pointing this out on behalf of a large section of civil society representatives who are experiencing and closely watching all this.

It may be pointed out that any decision to delay or amend the notification number G.S.R. 402(E) dated July 5, 2006 also has huge legal ramifications at both national and international level. We are pointing out two of such issues hereunder.

India signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on 10th Sep 2003 and ratified the treaty on 5th Feb 2004. The graphic warnings as prescribed under the Indian legislation and the rules made there-under relates to Article 11 of FCTC commitment on the issue of "Packaging and labelling of tobacco products." According to Article 11 of the FCTC, each party is legally bound to adopt and implement the provisions of Article 11 within a period of three years after entry into force of FCTC for that party. For India this period of three years expires on February 4, 2007.

If the "Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules 2006" are delayed beyond the originally prescribed date of February 1, 2007 then it shall be a clear violation of the FCTC.

It may be recalled that the graphic warning notification came into effect after concerned citizens filed a "Public Interest Civil Writ Petition" in the "Himachal Pradesh High Court." The court was quite displeased because of the delaying tactics of the MoH on the warning issues and on two occasions even passed harsh remarks on the functioning of the MoH and its officials. Subsequently even the Secretary of Health was directed to appear in person. However the MoH represented by the Assistant and Under Secretary presented the July 5th notification in the High Court and gave an undertaking that in accordance with the relief desired in the petition, they have implemented the provisions of the legislation relating to the pictorial warning which shall come into effect from February 1, 2007.

Now, if the notification is further delayed, it will clearly amount to misleading the High Court by submitting false statements in the court of law with the intention to defeat the process of law. It also amount to contempt of the court. We understand that the concerned citizens will not hesitate to approach the court again for appropriate relief and for investigation of the fact that how come a notification which came three years too late and gave a long lead time of over seven months to the tobacco industry to implement the provisions related to pictorial warning, is to be delayed yet again on flimsy grounds.

How violation of the provisions of the FCTC and issues related to all this will reflect for a country which won the "Luther Terry Award" at the 2006 World conference on tobacco is also to be considered by your good self.

We hope that you will once again reconsider the "Ministry of Health" decision to postpone the implementation of gazette notification number G.S.R. 402(E) dated July 5, 2006 in the light of the above mentioned contentions. We further hope that you will give one more good reason to the Indian public to celebrate the Christmas and New Year by reassuring them that the tobacco industry has been given enough time and that they wouldn’t be allowed any further dupe beyond the February 1, 2006 deadline.

Wishing you a happy Christmas and a very happy new year;

Yours cordially

Hemant Goswami
Chairperson, Burning Brain Society

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