PM urged for surgical hit on tobacco lobby

After reports of suspected disruptions in the global anti-tobacco conference which will review the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products slated for next week, Sumitra Pednekar, wife of Maharashtra’s former home and labour minister Satish Pednekar, who died of oral cancer, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him not to succumb to the pressures from the tobacco industry against the Conference of the Parties (COP7).

The event will be held from November 7 to 12. It will bring together the WHO FCTC’s 180 parties — which includes almost every country in the world as well as regional economic integration organisations like the European Union.

Ms Pednekar has urged the PM “to stand for lakhs of women who are getting widowed by the tobacco Industry”. “Most of these women are young widows who witness their husbands die miserably due to illnesses such as mouth or throat cancer. It exhausts them emotionally and financially, apart from bringing despair and isolation.”