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Alternate crops for tobacco farmers: Trivedi 

Reiterating the Government's commitment on tobacco control, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dinesh Trivedi said it was working on rehabilitation of beedi workers, who could be rendered jobless, and creating alternative cropping systems to wean away tobacco farmers to other crops.

Noting that the biggest challenge to taking forward tobacco control measures came from beedi rolling industry and tobacco farming, he said his Ministry has started consultations with Rural Development Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry to address the issue.

With the Rural Development Ministry, consultations have begun to introduce projects and schemes for self-help groups under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and with the Agriculture Ministry, the endeavour was aimed at developing alternative cropping systems to enable tobacco farmers to move to other crops.

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