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2 Ministries in tangle over smoking norms
The Ministries of Health and Information and Broadcasting are at loggerheads over the implementation of rules on smoking in films. The I&B Ministry’s move to keep the Health Ministry’s recent notification stipulating stricter regulations on the issue in “abeyance” following demand from various filmmakers has not gone down well with the latter.
Sources told The Pioneer that following a meeting with prominent filmmakers and producers on Wednesday, the I&B Ministry made it clear to the Health Ministry that it would not implement the anti-smoking notification unless the “grievances” made by the Bollywood sector were met.
Filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt, Ritesh Sidhwani and Javed Akhtar had met I&B Minister Ambika Soni to protest the guidelines which they termed as “absurd”. They doubted the Health Ministry’s claim that the measures will be effective in discouraging the youth from taking up smoking.
“In fact, the I&B Ministry’s haste in taking on the Health Ministry could be gauged from the fact that no sooner did the talks with the filmmakers conclude at around 10 pm, than it issued a two-page missive to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad listing its reservations on the notification issued on November 14,” the sources said.
Irked over the move, the Health Ministry termed it as “interference” in its jurisdiction. It has questioned the I&B Ministry’s move “since the notification had come after a year-long discussion with it”.
“The notification has been prepared after a series of deliberations with representatives from the I&B Ministry which was sitting on the matter for quite long. Now when the rules have been notified, they are citing various constraints. This is shocking,” said a senior Health Ministry official.
When contacted, Keshav Desiraju, Additional Secretary in the Health Ministry, said the issues raised by the I&B Ministry are being examined.
“But the notification remains enforced till then. This is the duty of the Central Board of Films Division to ensure that the guidelines are complied with.”
The Health Ministry is, however, clueless if the rules are being really enforced since their notification.
As per the notification issued under the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Rules, 2004, among many other restrictions every new and old film (Indian and foreign), as well as TV programmes (new and old), must have the actors mouthing health warnings at the beginning of the film, and in the middle.
The films showing actors smoking or using tobacco will get U/A certification while there has to be a health warning scroll in legible and readable font going across the scene as a ticker saying smoking causes cancer; smoking kills, tobacco causes cancer.
The Ministries of Health and Information and Broadcasting are at loggerheads over the implementation of rules on smoking in films. The I&B Ministry’s move to keep the Health Ministry’s recent notification stipulating stricter regulations on the issue in “abeyance” following demand from various filmmakers has not gone down well with the latter.
Sources told The Pioneer that following a meeting with prominent filmmakers and producers on Wednesday, the I&B Ministry made it clear to the Health Ministry that it would not implement the anti-smoking notification unless the “grievances” made by the Bollywood sector were met.
Filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt, Ritesh Sidhwani and Javed Akhtar had met I&B Minister Ambika Soni to protest the guidelines which they termed as “absurd”. They doubted the Health Ministry’s claim that the measures will be effective in discouraging the youth from taking up smoking.
“In fact, the I&B Ministry’s haste in taking on the Health Ministry could be gauged from the fact that no sooner did the talks with the filmmakers conclude at around 10 pm, than it issued a two-page missive to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad listing its reservations on the notification issued on November 14,” the sources said.
Irked over the move, the Health Ministry termed it as “interference” in its jurisdiction. It has questioned the I&B Ministry’s move “since the notification had come after a year-long discussion with it”.
“The notification has been prepared after a series of deliberations with representatives from the I&B Ministry which was sitting on the matter for quite long. Now when the rules have been notified, they are citing various constraints. This is shocking,” said a senior Health Ministry official.
When contacted, Keshav Desiraju, Additional Secretary in the Health Ministry, said the issues raised by the I&B Ministry are being examined.
“But the notification remains enforced till then. This is the duty of the Central Board of Films Division to ensure that the guidelines are complied with.”
The Health Ministry is, however, clueless if the rules are being really enforced since their notification.
As per the notification issued under the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Rules, 2004, among many other restrictions every new and old film (Indian and foreign), as well as TV programmes (new and old), must have the actors mouthing health warnings at the beginning of the film, and in the middle.
The films showing actors smoking or using tobacco will get U/A certification while there has to be a health warning scroll in legible and readable font going across the scene as a ticker saying smoking causes cancer; smoking kills, tobacco causes cancer.
