New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) There will be no extension of the time-frame of December 1 for companies to carry pictorial warnings on tobacco product packets, government said today.
"No extension will be given. They will have to comply from December 1," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters when asked if the deadline could be extended in view of representation made by the tobacco industry.
The government had on May 28 come out with separate sets of gory graphics of cancer-affected lungs and mouth for smoking and smokeless forms of tobacco.
This was also for the first time that separate harsher pictorial warnings have been designated for smokeless tobacco like gutka.
Azad said warnings will be stronger in case of chewing tobacco as it has been found more harmful and more widely used than cigarettes and bidis.