BUCKLING UNDER pressure from bidi manufacturers, the Centre has set up a high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the "merits and demerits" of carrying the skull and crossbones warning on the packets of tobacco products. The GoM will meet on Wednesday, a week before the pictorial warnings were to appear from June 1.

The government is under immense pressure from its MPs and allies from states with large bidi industries. These include Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal , Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, all the members of the GoM, Pranab Mukherjee, Priyaranjan Das Munshi, Oscar Fernandes, Kamal Nath, Jaipal Reddy and Anbumani Ramadoss, represent the affected states.

These states are involved in the bid! industry and MPs fear it will greatly suffer if the general population quits tobacco because of the new health warnings. The warnings were to initially appear on all tobacco product packets from February 1. But the deadline was shifted to June 1 to give the industry more time to comply

The timing of the GoM meet is telling, "The skull and crossbones symbol was approved by a Parliament sub-committee in 2003. Why did the government take so long to react," asks a health ministry official.

The act, which is being implemented in phases, also bans advertising of tobacco products, sale to minors and showing of tobacco use in films and television, "No jobs will be lost. Health warnings and all other tobacco control measures put together will result in a decline in tobacco use over several years and that should provide adequate time for the government to identify alternative livelihoods for those employed in the 1 sector," says Dr K. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India Tobacco use kills 10 lakh people in India died every year, according the Indian Council of Medical Research. Other countries that have introduced 1 similar warnings include Canada , Brazil and Australia.