Date:26/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/26/stories/2006112604130600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Warning sign on beedi packets may go

Staff Reporter

NELLORE: In what seems to be a major relief to lakhs of beedi workers across the country, the statutory warning sign comprising a picture of skull, two crossed bones and a body on beedi packet wrappers is unlikely to be made mandatory from February.

"United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has personally assured me that the Centre will do the needful to put an end to the growing resentment against the health warning. If possible, the Centre will also amend the Act concerned, which was passed in 2003, to make only printing a warning as on cigarette packets mandatory," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said.