meerut in a bid to spread awareness about diseases such as mouth cancer throat cancer and lung cancerdirectly linked with consumption of tobacco over 150 persons including members of the general public and doctors of indian medical association ima took out a rally from ima hall at 730am on sunday the rally was concluded by a public meeting at ima hall where doctors cited that out of the total 60 lakh people who die of tobacco consumption annually in the entire world 10 lakh people are from india out of the total 10 lakh people who die of tobacco in india 40 die of cancer while other 60 die of diabetes heart attacks and many other diseases the main aim of the rally was not only to appeal to the general public to stop using tobacco but also ask the government to restrict sale of loose cigarettes and tobacco according to a recent survey 5500 children per day are introduced to tobacco intake in one form or another said dr umang mithal cancer surgeon doctors students and general public participated in the rally and raised placards and slogans like if you will not leave tobacco cancer will not leave you and stop tobacco start a living the rally which started form ima hall ended at the same spot an hour later though the doctors also visited dm pankaj yadav to put forward their demands but he remained unavailable the meeting at the ima hall which was attended by various city residents also focused on the ways one can leave tobacco by means of a healthy diet dr bhawana gandhi a dietician said not only chewing gum helps in leaving cigarettes but a healthy diet is a key to any disease be it the craving for cigarettes 10 kg of brinjal has as much nicotine as one cigarette and it is therefore very helpful for the people who are in the cigarettequitting phase