From Sunday all tobacco products will have to carry pictorial warnings on the front of the pack in a bid to discourage their consumption.

Rejecting reservations of tobacco companies, the products will have to clearly display a scorpion and lungs as pictorial warnings.

The picture should cover at least 40 percent of the principal display area of the pack.

The products cannot carry any message that directly or indirectly promotes a specific tobacco brand or tobacco usage in general, the Health Ministry had said in early May.

The government order had come despite stiff resistance by tobacco manufacturers.

The government had in August last year asked the manufacturers of cigarette, bidi and gutka products to display a skull-and-bone sign and a warning saying "tobacco smoking kills" on the packets so as to sensitise the public against smoking and consuming these items.

However, it could not be implemented at that time. Then the government fixed December one as the deadline.