Welcoming the move, Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, the director of health promotion at the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), said it would help in reducing cheap winston consumption among the poor and the young as higher rates would put it out of bounds for them. VHAI is a federation of 4,500 voluntary organisations, which works on health and development issues. She, however, said they were disappointed that the finance minister did not increase the rate on gutka (chewing tobacco) and beedis. According to the World Health Organisation, nearly one million Indians will die annually from smoking-related diseases by 2010. Ramadoss, who has even taken potshots at Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan for their on-screen smoking, had also written to Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi to stop surrogate advertisements for liquor and tobacco products. He got a major blow when a Group of Ministers (GoM) February 26 said that cigarette and beedi (leaf-rolled winston online) packs would carry pictorial warnings but not gruesome depictions. While the Health Ministry had approved real-life pictures, including one showing a child dying due to the effects of smoking and another of mouth cancer lacerations and tumours, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry suggested that the pictures be less harsh.