New Delhi: Nearly 653 doctors and office bearers of medical societies across the country have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement the new set of pictorial warning on tobacco product packages from April 1, to save millions of lives.

Doctors, cutting across specialties, in a letter, requested the Prime Minister to step in to prevent "powerful tobacco lobby" from subverting the anti-tobacco measures of the government.

"We the doctors of India urge you to reject the recommendations of Committee on Subordinate Legislation (CoSL) that aims to promote tobacco industry rather than save innocent Indians from falling prey to this fatal addiction. Effective pictorial warnings is all about awareness and it is being wrongfully equated with ban on tobacco," the letter said.