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Despite growing labour trouble, tobacco giant ITC's joint venture in Nepal remains one of the top tax payers in the Himalayan republic, coming second after the state-run Nepal Telecom.
Surya Nepal, ITC's joint venture with British American Tobacco and private Nepali shareholders including members of Nepal's former royal family, was the second-highest tax payer in 2007-08, according to Nepal's apex bank Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). . . .
Besides being Nepal's biggest manufacture of tobacco products, the nearly 30-year-old ITC joint venture has diversified into garments manufacturing in Nepal.
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Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has submitted to the Cabinet an anti-tobacco bill that prohibits smoking in public places.
Health Secretary Dr. Dirgha Singh Bam, however, said tobacco firms and beneficiaries would prevent the bill from being enacted, saying the bill would create huge unemployment, loss in income and so on.
“The bill might have been delayed due to hindrances created by various groups,” said Dr. Bam. “Therefore, we urge the media and civil society to create strong pressure so that parliament will pass the bill for the betterment of public health.”
Employees of Janakpur Cigarette Factory ceased work on Tuesday to protest the murder of one of their supervisors Narendra Khati.
They are picketing the District Administration Office (DAO) displaying the corpse of Khati. They are demanding that Khati be declared a martyr, his family be provided compensation and employment, and security of all employees be guaranteed.
Meanwhile, police also arrested five persons from Janakpur late Monday in connection with the murder.
Khati, 45, was shot dead allegedly by cadres of Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha - Jwala Singh in Janakpur on Monday evening. Surya Dev Singh, district commander of JTMM (Jwala) owned up the murder of Khati within 10 minutes of Khati being shot. The armed outfit accused the supervisor of spying against the group.
Government delegation from Nepal is among those 160 countries' delegations currently meeting in Durban, South Africa, to negotiate guidelines for provisions of the global tobacco treaty (17-22 November 2008).
The negotiations centre on the implementation of Article 5.3, which protects the treaty and related public health policies from tobacco industry interference.
The global tobacco treaty, formally called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), took effect in 2005 and now protects more than 85 percent of the world's population. But efforts to implement the treaty are being systematically stymied by tobacco transnationals, reinforcing the importance of this week's third Conference of the Parties (COP3) in Durban, South Africa.
Dr Dirgh Singh Bam, Secretary for Ministry of Health and Population, Government of Nepal, heads the Nepalese delegation at the COP3 negotiations.
"Tobacco industry is very strong" said Dr Bam, sharing his personal opinion.
The Nepali government is preparing to introduce a law to ban smoking in public places, China's Xinhua news agency reported Thursday quoting the nepalnews.com as saying.
"Places for smoking will be designated. If anyone smokes outside such designated places, he/she will be fined," said Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam.
As many as 15,000 people are estimated to die due to tobacco consumption in Nepal every year, according to a report issued here by Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NCRS) on Wednesday.
Due to the delay in the ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the promotion of tobacco products has been going unabated.
"Earlier, the ratification was delayed citing the lack of authentic legal body in the country. No efforts have been made on that front even after the formation of a new government and the revival of the House of Representatives," president of the NCRS Diwakar Raj Karnikar said in the report.
Taking cigarette or other forms of tobacco has become a part of life among many women in Taplejung district. Whether they be in the field works or other household chores, they are found using tobacco.
According to the district hospital, most of women in the district smoke cigarettes or take tobacco. "Even pregnant women smoke cigarettes and chew tobacco," said the hospital source to our correspondent. . . .
Limbu, a mother of five children, said that she had no idea about the consequences of smoking.
Karna Maya Limbu, 43, also shares a similar account. She said that she started to take tobacco for getting relief from her mental stress. She assumes that smoking releases mental stress, agony, pain and anxiety.
Both types of people-- literate and illiterate, smoke cigarette and tobacco in the district.
A district level network has been set up here in order to gradually minimize the use of tobacco products in Ilam district. The network was founded at a gathering of local NGOs here, organized at the initiative of the Mahila Jagaran Sangh, supported by the Primary Health Centre, Kathmandu. The gathering also decided to carry out awareness-oriented programs for the minimization of consumption of tobacco products, considering the people’s right to health. According to a study, of the total population 73 per cent of the people in Ilam district have been found to be consuming tobacco products. Likewise, ten per cent of the farmers in the district are into tobacco farming
The number of female smokers is higher in Nepal compared to other countries, especially from hilly and Himalayan regions. The trend has picked up in the form of a fad in the urban areas. Around 15,000 people die in Nepal every year due to consumption of tobacco related products. . . .
Talking to The Rising Nepal first vice-president of Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NCRS) Ishwor Shrestha said there are 4000 kinds of chemicals in tobacco and they cause 25 kinds of diseases. He said that diseases related to the lung, mouth, throat and uterus cancer, baldness, cataract, asthma, weakness, infections of the mouth cavity, weak bone, heart problem and stomach ulcer. Anti-smoking Day The country adopted Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003 but still it has not been implemented
Indian tobacco giant ITC has had little cause to celebrate the 59th Indian Republic Day with trade unionists backed by the Maoists shutting down its tobacco factory in south Nepal, the second such disruption in three months.
Surya Nepal, ITC's majority-held joint venture that is also one of Nepal's largest revenue earners, has had its tobacco factory in Simra town in frontier district Bara closed since Wednesday with its Maoist-affiliated trade union raising a fresh 15-point demand.
Nepal Cancer Relief Society has announced to make Nepal a tobacco-free nation by 2020.
The declaration was made by the Society's Central Assembly that passed a proposal on it.
The Society has also expressed the commitment to work towards realising the proposal by working in coordination with the Government of Nepal, political parties, civil society, consumers' association, journalists' associations, trade association and various other professional organisations for the effective enforcement of the UN Tobacco Control Convention.
Gorkha Lahari (P) Ltd. has entered the Nepali cigarette market by purchasing all the brands as well as the plant and machinery of Nepal Tobacco Company.
The Nepali cigarette market consumes about 9 billion sticks per year, according to some estimates. The sales volume of Nepal Tobacco was about Rs. 450 million per year.
Gorkha Lahari is the new name of Gorkha Lawrie (P) Ltd., a Soaltee Group company engaged in tea business that was purchased by Indian investor Raj Kumar Thard about five years ago
Sixteen thousand people die annually due to the consumption of tobacco products in Nepal.
Treatment of diseases caused by consumption of tobacco products is very expensive, difficult and the results are also not reliable. . . .
One hundred and sixty-eight countries, including Nepal, have signed the World Health Organization (WHO) Convention on Tobacco Control. Out of these, 141 countries have ratified the Convention.
The reinstated Parliament of Nepal had endorsed the Convention on 7 November, 2007.
In this connection, Minister of State for Population and Health, Sashi Shrestha, Friday, inaugurated the a national workshop on the implementation of WHO Convention on Tobacco Control organized by Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre ( CWIN).
Minister of State Shrestha said merely signing the Convention on paper was not enough until it was implemented in an effective manner.
According to some latest sta tistics, tobacco kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires put together because a cigarette smoker not only causes injury to him but also people around him.
Risks The World Health Organization (WHO) lists no less than 23 tobacco-related diseases and says that nicotine exacerbates asthma, causes impotence, infertility, cardiac distress, stokes and cancer. These include cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, lungs, oesophagus, bladder and pancreas - with oral cancers accounting for 70 per cent of all cancers in men in Nepal. . . .
It is disturbing to note there are plenty of kiosks in Kathmandu which sell cigarette and chewing tobacco just outside the schools and colleges. Punitive measures are essential to deter selling tobacco products around educational institutions as consumption of tobacco products are increasing, and youngsters are almost obsessed about them. The government and the companies have a responsibility to protect non-smokers from passive smoking. What the government and corporate must do is provide incentives that dissuade smokers from their dependency on the cancer stick. For instance, include a caveat in a smoker's contract that denies him medical benefits should the illness be related to smoking. Government policy Every smoker knows that smoking is injurious to health. Many at one point or the other try to kick the butt but few succeed. It is important to recognise that addiction to smoking, like other substances, is a psychological disability. Government policy must hinge on a policy of inclusion.
Self-regulation is a cry in the wilderness. Locate smoking zones far away so that the distance to reach that zone itself would deter the smoker from lighting up every so often. The power of persuasion takes time. But it is far more effective.
The Nepali Ministry of Health and Population has called on all sides concerned to coordinate and cooperate in anti-tobacco campaign to make tobacco-free home and society, local newspaper The Rising Nepal reported on Wednesday.
The ministry has also called for the adoption of the policy of checking and controlling production, distribution and consumption of tobacco products.
Various speakers at a discussion program organized by the National Health Education, Information and Communication Center on anti-tobacco stressed the concerted efforts to discourage the issue of tobacco in Nepal.