Mangaluru: The Centre’s new COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) guidelines’ led to a halt of beedi production and invited protests from beedi rolling workers on April 6. Nearly four lakh people from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, mostly women, lost their livelihood.

The beedi workers on an average used to earn Rs 100 a day. COTPA’s new guidelines insisted on health warning on the beedi packets and also mentioning their expiry date.

Following protest, a tripartite meeting was held to discuss the situation. Now the beedi factory owners and beedi rolling women are back to their business. But the labour unions still want the new COTPA guidelines to be scrapped.

Beedi Mazdur Sangh President, Vishwanath Shetty said, “On April 21 a meeting was held between factory owners, officials and unions. It was decided that the guidelines of 2008 would be back in place and the new COTPA guidelines would be eased. At a meeting in Mangaluru, the labour officials strictly advised factory owners to begin beedi rolling and owners finally agreed.”