Symbiosys Technologies chief executive officer O Naresh Kumar addressing a press conference in Visakhapatnam on Saturday (Photo HANS)
Visakhapatnam: Chief executive officer (CEO) of Symbiosys Technologies O Naresh Kumar has sent a registered legal notice to the government on why tobacco products, mostly non-smoking gutka and pan masala, should not be banned in view of public health.Addressing a press conference here, Mr Naresh Kumar said pan masala and gutka contained tobacco, which is injurious to health and causes cancer.
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and Delhi governments have already banned these products in their States, he said.Mr Naresh Kumar said there were nine lakh deaths in India due to tobacco usage and 90 per cent of them were due to oral cancer as per the reports of the Ministry of Health.
The Symbiosys Technologies CEO said India has one of the highest rates of oral cancer in the world due to usage of tobacco, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).He said college and school children were getting addicted to chewing pan masala and gutka as the local authorities were not preventing the sale as per the regulations.
The Cigarettes and Tobbaco (Prohibition of Advertisements and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, which prevents the sale of tobacco products to people below 18 years of age and sale within 100 yards of any educational institution, is not being implemented in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, he said.
Mr Naresh Kumar said the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the Prohibition and Restriction on Sale, 2011, effective from August 1, 2011, specified that tobacco and nicotine shall not be used in any food product.
This was not implemented by the Public Health Department of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) or the police, he lamented. “Hence I served a legal notice on the government represented by various officers,” Mr Naresh Kumar said. P Vishnu Kumar Raju was also present at the press conference.
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