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Presently, India has more than 30 crore consumers of tobacco, most of whom start this habit early in life owing to lack of awareness. The Petitions Committee, which submitted its report on

regulating the use of tobacco, has slammed the state government for not setting up a high-power committee to formulate laws to prevent the consumption of tobacco. The committee—headed by BJP

MLA N Yogish Bhat—which submitted its report to the legislative assembly on Tuesday took serious objection to the lapse and stated that the committee considers this issue very seriously. It

also noted that the state should emulate other states that have already constituted high-power committees. The government should form a committee under the leadership of additional chief

secretary and principal secretaries of all departments should have representation, the report underlined. It also stressed that various departments such as health, home, urban development

and local bodies, education, finance, law, labour, agriculture departments will have to work in tandem to find solution. The committee also slammed inactiveness of the state’s Tobacco

Regulation Board, stating that it has resulted in unprecedented rise in consumption of tobacco. This, in turn, has resulted in the rise of the number of cases of mouth cancer, and diseases

of heart and lungs, abortions, birth of stillborn babies and womb cancer. The committee urged the government to act against officers of Tobacco Regulation Board for being responsible for

such cascading effects on the society by their negligence. The committee also recommended giving the name and contact number of the officer to be contacted in case of smoking at public

places. “After 5th standard, the syllabus must include the implications of use of tobacco. Health sector spends about Rs30,000 crore each year to treat tobacco-related diseases,” the report

states. It recommended imposition of more cess on the on tobacco products, which could be used for rehabilitation purpose of those who are employed in the manufacturing of tobacco products.

The committee urged the state government to emulate the government of Goa, which has effectively reduced the use of tobacco products by enacting The Goa Prohibition of Smoking and Spitting

(Amendment) Act, 2001.