-Omprakash Mishra
Ranchi: Deepak Mishra, executive director of Socio Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), which has been campaigning for the last decade in Jharkhand on the issue of tobacco control, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Wrote a complete ban on industries manufacturing Pan Masala, Gutkha and Chewing Aromatic Tobacco (SLT) products in the entire country while worrying about the future of the country, especially the youth and minors.
Deepak Mishra said that every year around 8 million people globally and more than 13.5 lakh Indians in India die due to tobacco use. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey Report 2017 (GATS 2), about 270 million people are using tobacco in India, out of which 200 million are using Chewing Tobacco (SLT) products including flavored tobacco, gutka and pan masala . Tobacco consumption is a big challenge to the productivity and economy of the country. According to cancer experts, about 90 percent of oral cancers occur in people who smoke tobacco.
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Need to ban misleading advertisements
Mishra informed that the pan masala industry is doing advertisements with malicious intent to promote the sale of their product widely through cinema stars to woo gullible consumers especially youth and minors. Such advertisements that are not only robbing consumers of their money for a deadly product but can also harm their health. There is an urgent need to ban such misleading advertisements. He said that in the past years, Jharkhand and Bihar governments had got samples of different brands of pan masala tested, in which magnesium carbonate and nicotine were found to be harmful chemicals. Both the state governments had written a letter to the Union Health Ministry urging them to ban the above pan masala brands and banned it in their state.
Tobacco industry does tax evasion
The tobacco industry is causing loss of revenue of crores of rupees to the government every year by evading taxes. Mishra, citing the answer of the Finance Minister on the question asked in Parliament on February 8, 2021 last year, said that in the case of evasion of 100 crores or more tax located in different states, about 20 companies are associated with the business of tobacco industry. Had happened. He said that there is a large scale illegal and unaccounted trade of tobacco products especially pan masala and chewing tobacco products. Recently, in the raids of DGGI in Kanpur and Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, the recovery of unaccounted billions of rupees from the traders of pan masala and other tobacco products is proof of this.