Guwahati, April 5 : Cancer survivors and patients in Assam will move Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a plea to put an end to the tobacco-cancer controversy and immediately increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products.

Giasuddin Ahmed, 70, who hails from Goalpara district and underwent treatment at B. Borooah Cancer Institute here last year, told The Telegraph that he himself is evidence enough on how tobacco causes cancer.

"I was a farmer and used to remain in the field throughout the day. I smoked beedi and chewed tobacco a lot to overcome tiredness and for relaxation. But smoking beedi and chewing tobacco ruined my life when I was detected with throat cancer in 2013," Ahmed said.

Ahmed, who will have to spend rest of his life completely on medication, said he was shocked to hear some BJP MPs making statements that tobacco does not cause cancer.

"Some other patients of the institute and I will send a letter to the Prime Minister at the earliest with a plea to end the tobacco-cancer controversy and increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products. We want to save the future generation of Assam from tobacco as well as cancer," Ahmed said.

Rafiq Ali, 40, another patient, said he used to ignore pictorial warnings on tobacco products. "I hope that increasing the size of the warnings acts as a deterrent to smokers and tobacco-chewers," he said.

Patients suffering from oesophagus, pharynx (or throat), larynx and gallbladder cancer mainly caused by chewing tobacco will sign the letter.

A massive controversy broke out across the country on Tuesday over comments by a parliamentary panel head and BJP MP Dilip Gandhi that there was no Indian study to confirm tobacco use causes cancer.

Tezpur BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah also said it was debatable whether smoking causes cancer. "I know two elderly people who drank a bottle of alcohol and smoked 60 cigarettes every day. One is still alive, the other died at 86," Sarmah had told television journalists on Friday. BJP leader Shyam Charan Gupta had also backed Gandhi's comment.

Sources said Modi yesterday asked Union health minister J.P. Nadda to review the issue of enforcing larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packets after a parliamentary committee said the move should be delayed because there is no local evidence that smoking causes cancer.

"We sincerely hope and have faith in the Prime Minister that he would send a clear message that his government is not caving under pressure from the tobacco lobby by ensuring that 85 per cent of packaging will carry a depiction of the damage done by smoking and chewing tobacco," BBCI director Amal Chandra Kataki said. He said there are numerous studies in the country to prove the association of tobacco consumption with cancer. Kataki said the unwanted controversy is a matter of serious concern for Assam, which is burdened with the highest number of cancer patients. "The members of Parliament must have to play a big role in curbing cancer," he said.

The institute receives about 5,000 tobacco-related cancer patients every year. About 50 to 55 per cent of male patients and 25 to 30 per cent women patients at the institute have tobacco-related cancers.