NEW DELHI, INDIA, Feb. 6, 2001: A comprehensive legislation by the Union Cabinet today decided to curb smoking in public places. It would also seek to ban sale of tobacco products to minors under the age of 18 and to ban sponsorship of sports and cultural events by tobacco-product companies. The Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said the legislation would ensure that warnings on the package would be of the same size as that of the largest panel of the package, with warnings in both English and the local language of the territory where it was sold. Smoking in public places and sale to minors would attract a fine up to US$2.17. For other convictions, the punishment proposed was imprisonment up to three years and fine up to $2,174. It was estimated that India accounts for one-third of the three million deaths which occurred around the world every year due to tobacco-related ailments.
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