'Pictorial warning on cigarette packets to go'

New Delhi, June 20: The dreaded pictorial warning of skull and crossbones on cigarette and beedi packets will soon go up in smoke as the government is for other types of messages to wean away the addicts.

''Some warning will definitely be here, but certainly no skull and bones,'' Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters.

For this purpose, the Cabinet today approved a proposal to amend the relevant laws by introducing a Bill in the first week of the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning early August, he said.

The move comes in the wake of demands in Parliament for protecting the beedi sector which employ about one million people.

The government would, however, take care to make the anti-tobacco campaign more vigorous, Mr Dasmunsi said.

What was being aimed was to ensure that the campaign did not affect any community, group or section, the Minister explained.

UNI