New Delhi, Apr 1 (UNI) The government had deferred implementation of the decision taken last year in October for increasing the size of pictorial health warning on cigarette packets and other products based on tobacco. The Health Ministry notification seeking increase in the size of warning from the existing 40 per cent to 85 per cent was to come into effect from tomorrow. The government action came on a recommendation of a Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP MP Dilip Gandhi, which was examining the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. The Committee wanted that the decision to impose large pictorial warning on tobacco products should be kept in abeyance. Mr Gandhi had contended that there was no Indian research to show any link between cancer and consumption of tobacco. All studies linking the two had come from abroad, he had said. Activists say there were various lobbies which were against any step detrimental to the tobacco industry. If the proposed notification had been implemented, India would have been the only country in the world where tobacco products’ packets carried such a large pictorial warning. Earlier in the day, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had questioned the contention that there was no Indian research to show that cancer was caused by consumption of tobacco. When reporters asked Mr Javadekar about Mr Gandhi’s remarks, the Minister said, 'Science is Science; you cannot compromise on it.’’ UNI NAZ SW AE 1853