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“Azad should change his stand”

PANAJI: Anti-tobacco campaigners have expressed displeasure over the new Union Minister for Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement on smoking scenes in films.

Shekhar Salkar, general secretary of the Goa-based National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), on Sunday took exception to Mr. Azad’s observations that “there is nothing wrong in showing smoking scenes in movies, as he did not agree with the view that people get influenced by such scenes on screen and imitate them in real life.”

Dr. Salkar said it was well known that film stars had a large number of fans among youths who imitated the actions of their heroes without thinking of the consequences of their actions. This fact, the anti-tobacco campaigner said, established through surveys of tobacco use contradicted the view expressed by Mr. Azad.

NOTE appealed to the Minister to “change his view to save the large number of unsuspecting youths from falling in the deadly clutches of tobacco.”

On the Centre’s notification that retail packages of tobacco products should carry pictorial warnings covering 40 per cent of the front area of the package, Dr. Salkar said they were awaiting the implementation of the condition as these formed the most prominent source of health information in a country having nearly 70 per cent illiterate population.

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“Azad should change his stand”

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