Chennai: In gross violation of the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) promoting quitting of smoking, the Customs department here is auctioning 2.94 crore sticks of seized foreign cigarettes on Tuesday, which in effect would mean that the Central Government competes with the profiteering trader peddling tobacco unmindful of the morbid truth that it’s the second biggest killer in the country.
The sale by e-bidding during 11 am to 5.30 pm on October 25, expected to fetch about Rs.38 crore, is anchored by the government’s trading wing, MSTC, a Mini Ratna Category-1 public sector undertaking, and will feature international brands including Benson & Hedges, Djarum Black and Dunhill White. The cigarettes, which are currently stored at different government godowns, had been seized by the Customs at various times at Chennai airport and the sea port. The auction details posted on the MSTC site say prospective buyers can inspect the containers with cigarettes at the godowns till Monday.
“This is appalling, highly condemnable”, said former Union health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who has long been spearheading a campaign against tobacco and alcohol. “Instead of destroying this dangerous contraband, the government is selling it just as it would sell seized electronic items. The smuggled transistor does not kill but the cigarette can”, he said, pointing out that India is a signatory to WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which seeks to globally combat the killer tobacco.
“Ten million people die due to tobacco in India, which is one-sixth of the world tobacco deaths. It is terrible that the Customs wants to sell the seized cigarettes in the market. Next they might do that to the seized ganja”, said the former minister, a PMK senior. When contacted, a Customs official said the successful bidders in the e-auction would be required to give an undertaking that they would sell the cigarettes in the market only after complying with the mandatory regulations, including the printing of 85 per cent pictorial warning on the packet. “This is mere tokenism and demonstrates the government’s insensitivity towards its own anti-tobacco campaigning”, said S. Cyril Alexander, state convener, Tamil Nadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control. “Customs should destroy the cigarettes as per the procedures laid down in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA), 2003. If they do not do it, it only proves the tobacco industry’s influence”.
While even a ‘fresh’ cigarette has been proven to cause fatal diseases such as cancer, the state of this Customs stock appears unclear as the cigarettes seized at various times have been lying in different godowns in questionable storage conditions. These cigarette packs most likely will not have the date of manufacture. And soon they may find their way into the pockets of the city’s college kids.
