This time, when the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) chooses the new set of pictorial warnings for tobacco products they will have to be extra careful. With the earlier photo — a blurred image that appeared to be resembling footballer John Terry — creating trouble, the Union health ministry has asked the DAVP to give them more options of photos for the tobacco manufacturers, mandating that pictures should be “general”.
The health ministry had got into a controversy due to the earlier photo with the managers of England and Chelsea skipper John Terry stating that they will initiate legal action against the Indian government. While, the health ministry has decided not to “withdraw” that photo clarifying that the photo was developed by the DAVP in consultations with them and the pictures were mere sketches which did not relate to any person living or dead. The officials are of the view that the new photos will give a wider choice to the manufacturers.
“We have asked the DAVP to give at least four new options. This will give the companies a wider choice as it will be their decision to use one of the photos out of the shortlisted ones. Once they have enough options with them they will not make attempts to scuttle pictorial warnings,” said a senior official in the ministry.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who held the meeting with the senior officials in the health ministry recently, has asked the officials to convey to the DAVP that the photos should be general, mostly depicting health-related problems caused due to excessive intake of tobacco.
The health ministry had earlier changed the photos from mild to harsh and gory pictures last year after the DAVP submitted pictures showing different facets of mouth cancer and lung cancer to the Union health ministry. The warnings were notified after the health minister approved it. The warnings were for both smokeless and smoking form of tobacco products.
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MoEF against dam study
R. AYYAPPAN
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, feb. 12
Union minister for environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan is putting more hurdles in the way of the Kerala government’s move to conduct an environment impact assessment (EIA) for the proposed new dam in Mullaperiyar, government sources here said.
First, she claimed that the state had not sought clearance from the national board for wildlife (NBW) for the study, but documents proved otherwise. Now, her ministry says the NBW sanction will not be enough. The MoEF, in a new missive to the state, stated that the Supreme Court alone had the power to sanction such a study. The proposed dam comes within the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
The state government, however, will go ahead with the environment study. “The new condition put forward by the MoEF is nothing but an attempt to delay the study proposed by Kerala,” a top irrigation department source said.