Raise Taxes to Cut Tobacco Use: Modi
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- Created on Wednesday, 28 December 2011 21:35
Sushil Kumar Modi and Ashwini Kumar Choubey at an anti-tobacco meet in Patna on Wednesday.
Patna: Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, speaking at a program dubbed as 'Voice of Tobacco Victims' in Patna on Wednesday, favored raising taxes on tobacco products to reduce cancer cases in Bihar.
"Taxes will be raised on cigarettes, guthkas, and chewing tobaccos to discourage people from consuming them. This will also lead to reduction in cases of cancer in the state," Modi said at the program sponsored by the Cancer Awareness Society (CAS) and Healis-Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health.
The Deputy CM also urged Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey to initiate a program at school-level urging students to take a pledge against the use of tobacco products.
A number of tobacco-induced cancer victims were present on the occasion.
Bihar Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, echoing the sentiments of Modi, said that the healthcare cost to fight cancer was five times more than the revenue raised by the sale of tobacco products.
T. P. Sinha, the former Director General of Police and the president of CAS, in his speech said that each year nearly one lakh people in Bihar die of cancer caused by intensive use of tobacco products. He further said that over 53% of the Bihar population was addicted to some sort of tobacco product and there was a pressing need to bring this number down considerably.
Noted oncologist from Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi also presented grim picture of tobacco use in the state saying nearly 50% of the cancer victims visiting him in the Mumbai hospital came from Bihar.
Dr. Arun Kumar, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna also spoke on the occasion.