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Impetus to chewing tobacco
As a regular reader of your paper, I would like to highlight
my concern about the Tobacco Bill, 2001. The introduction of
the bill is a good step forward, but can it really address the
issue? India, with its age-old tradition of tobacco consumption
and widespread use, must adopt serious measures to curb its
usage. A closer look at the bill suggests that in its present
form, which seems to be inspired by the World Health Organisation’s
efforts in other countries where (unlike India) the only form
of tobacco consumption is cigarettes, may fail to address the
real problems. Policymakers do not seem to have considered that
84 per cent of tobacco consumed is in the form of bidis and
chewing tobacco. These may slip out from the purview of the
bill due to their unorganised status and reluctance of the states
to adopt the bill. Incidentally, the bidi and chewing tobacco
industries fall under the state list. So far, only four states,
Goa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab have agreed for central
legislation to be applied in their respective states. In addition,
monitoring these two industries — which are in the unorganised
sector — will be difficult.
The implementation of the bill may actually support a trend
which has seen tobacco consumption via non-smoking routes grow
faster than cigarettes and bidis in the recent past. Due to
increasing excise and other taxes, the tobacco consumption pattern
has shifted in favour of the more dangerous chewing tobacco
products. It will be far more practical for the government to
stipulate that tobacco companies advertising in the media should
necessarily spend a proportionate amount on public interest
advertising highlighting the hazards of tobacco consumption.
Alternatively, the government can fund such public interest
advertising through the excise surcharge imposed on cigarettes
in this year’s budget. I urge that the authorities reconsider
the bill, since in its present format, it will remain a showpiece
to the world.
— Amit Rajvansh, on e-mail
Distorting history
Unwarranted controversy has been raised by some leftist politicians
and intellectuals over the issue of the rewriting of history
text books. In fact, they are guilty of doctoring text books
to suit their own ideology at the expense of historical truth.
NCERT and other educational bodies have issued specific instructions
with a “Fictional Vapourisation Cleansing” statement which says
that: “The period of Moslem Rule in India is not to be portrayed
as a period of Conflict, Collision, Or Discord between the Hindus
and the Moslems.” Interestingly, no similar guidelines exist
to smooth over the caste inequalities in Indian society. The
Prime Minister deserves kudos for his stand.
— Manish Garg, on e-mail
Old law’s better
I do not favour the changes proposed in the Negotiable Instruments
Act pertaining to cheques that have bounced. They will only
create difficulties for banks and will make them a party to
unnecessary litigation. Problems also arise in respect of payment
of cheques in favour of government departments and complexities
created in the matter of maintaining records for various transactions
by the government department. The proposed law also gives rise
to reconciliation problems for customers. I think it is better
to implement the existing law on dishonouring of cheques forcefully
rather than changing it without giving proper thought on its
after-effects.
— Rajesh Gupta, on e-mail
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