Kolkata: As lakhs of investors affected by the chit fund scam demand refund, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to increase tax on cigarettes by 10 per cent to help them. She said smoking more won't harm, but help investors.
"We have decided to increase the tax on cigarettes by 10 per cent in order to raise money for the Saradha Relief Fund. It wouldn't harm if you smoke some more. Do that and we will be able to collect the required amount quickly," Mamata said.
Mamata had on Wednesday defended her government in the chit fund scam and lauded the police force for doing a "good job". She also announced a Rs 500 crore relief fund for the small and medium-term investors hit by the scam. She said that Rs 150 crore of the fund would be raised through a 10 per cent surcharge on cigarettes and the rest through other means.
Mamata attacked the Left saying its members would be exposed soon and warned that if anybody from the Trinamool Congress "has done an illegal thing, legal remedy will be taken"....
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01:57 PM, Apr 25, 2013
Moscow: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said new legislation banning smoking in public places could save up to 200,000 lives annually in the country. "I hope that it (anti-smoking law) will contribute to reducing this factor (smoking)," Medvedev said at the first session of the government's health protection committee. Russia has some of the highest rates of smoking in the world. President Vladimir Putin signed the ban into the...
05:12 AM, Apr 25, 2013
Panaji: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar Tuesday promised action against Saif Ali Khan-starrer film "Go Goa Gone" after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator said it promoted smoking and showed Goa in bad light. "You give me all the detail and I will take action," Parrikar told BJP MLA Pramod Sawant, after he said that the film's publicity showed Goa negatively, apart from promoting smoking. "The poster shows Saif smoking...
05:34 PM, Apr 10, 2013
What is John Abraham's motto as an actor? Fun and commercial viability, perhaps in that order. He says that enjoyment is key when it comes to choosing a film. ...
10:49 AM, Mar 09, 2013
Akhtar called on the Indian health ministry to re-invent their anti-smoking strategy with regard to films. ...
03:59 PM, Mar 02, 2013
CJ Navin Khanna on how harmful tobacco can be and why the warnings about the sufferings shouldn't be taken lightly. ...
05:37 PM, Feb 18, 2013
There is some good news and bad news for smokers. A new study published in the New England Medical Journal has found that if you smoke, you are likely to lose 10 years of life. But if you quit smoking at 40, you are likely to gain those years back. ...
09:47 AM, Jan 28, 2013
What defines the genre of cult cinema? Does the sub-cultural appeal of once neglected films explain their snowballing into mainstream behemoths? ...
06:31 PM, Jan 17, 2013
Pakistan Prime Minster Raja Pervez Ashraf has given up smoking, becoming the only member of Pakistan's power troika of premier, president and army chief to stop using tobacco, according to a media report on Wednesday. Ashraf made the decision to quit smoking when he was in Mecca last month to perform Haj at the special invitation of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. ...
02:55 PM, Dec 05, 2012
Smoking 'rots' the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to a new study. Researchers from the King's College London in brain tests and analysis of health and lifestyle data of a group of over-50s found that smoking affects the brain negatively even more than high blood pressure and obesity. ...
12:46 PM, Nov 26, 2012
New Delhi: A new study has estimated that 100 million people have died due to smoking in India over the last 100 years, and the worst apparently is yet to come. Nearly 4.52 trillion cigarettes and 40.3 trillion beedis have been produced in 100 years, between 1910 and 2010 in India, according to a new study published in the journal Current Science. And in an even more shocking revelation, the...
06:57 AM, Nov 12, 2012
London: For smokers willing to kick the butt, scientists have an unusual solution - gargling with a glass of lemonade. In a new study, scientists have found that the interaction of sugar (known as glucose) with the tongue boosts attention as well as energy and can improve self control. This could help keep smokers away from the cigarettes at least in the short-term, the Daily Mail reported. The study was...
01:19 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: Socio-economic milieu also has a bearing on the smoking habit as poor men in India smoke more than the rich, says a recent study. The World Health Survey (WHS) conducted by the WHO has found that 46.7 per cent of the poor men smoke in India as against 21.8 per cent of the rich men. The study, released here by as part of the anti-tobacco campaign, found that 35.3...
01:14 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Washington: Inactivation of a specific sub-class of nicotinic receptors may be an effective strategy to help smokers quit without feeling anxious, a new study has found. According to researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University, these findings could pave way for development of novel therapies to help smokers quit without feeling anxious. Smokers use cigarettes for many reasons, but many report that they smoke to relieve anxiety, despite the health danger...
03:02 PM, Nov 09, 2012
Patna: About 20 million school students in Bihar on Wednesday took a pledge that they would never consume tobacco or related products, and would encourage their family and friends to do the same, an official said. "Over 20 million students of around 2.2 lakh government and private schools vowed that they would never consume tobacco or related products in their lives," A.A. Hai, an official of the Cancer Awareness Society...
10:53 AM, Nov 08, 2012
London: Fancy a smoke? It might be putting off your colleagues. More than half of the workers resent colleagues who take smoking breaks and think the time should come out of their salaries, a new UK survey has found. A total of 58 per cent workers get angry over "unfair" breaks while just one in four (26 per cent) think smokers should be paid the same, a survey by a...
03:29 PM, Oct 23, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: Smokers in Kerala spend nearly nine per cent of their income on smoking, a survey by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) has revealed. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy recently released the report to Paul Sebastian, director, Regional Cancer Centre and vice chairman of Tobacco Free Kerala. The GAT Survey, conducted under the coordination of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2009-10, states that the monthly expenditure of...
05:06 PM, Oct 12, 2012
New Delhi: Students from various schools across Delhi have written postcards to Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor urging her not to promote smoking in her film 'Heroine'. As a part of HRIDAY's (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) ongoing campaign against depiction of tobacco use in films, over 150 students from different schools wrote to the 31-year-old actress. They urged her to refrain from showing tobacco use in all her upcoming...
01:37 PM, Sep 21, 2012
Nagpur: Embarrassed over being scolded for smoking in school, a teenage boy allegedly committed suicide in Nagpur, police said on Friday. The student of class XII in a school in Dhantoli, was caught by a teacher recently while he was allegedly smoking in the school. The school authorities called his family and informed them about his behaviour, police said, adding that the boy was also allegedly scolded by a school...
03:26 PM, Sep 07, 2012
New Delhi: The Central Government has told the Supreme Court that by September 14, it will bring in a notification which will make a warning against smoking mandatory in movies. The government has said that at the beginning, interval and end of movies there will be a warning tag saying 'Smoking is injurious to health'. The Central government has told the court that it will permit smoking scenes to be...
12:27 PM, Sep 04, 2012
