NIHAR GOKHALE: India's environment ministry is considering approving the cultivation of Genetically Modified or GM Mustard, which was developed by Delhi University.
But the ministry's committee responsible for evaluating the GM crop's biosafety has taken a U-turn on safety questions raised by its own members just a few months ago, anti-GM activists allege.
P.C. Kesavan, member of SC’s Technical Expert Committee, said that giving less time to analyse the data will amount to ‘fooling the people’
If GM mustard gets the green light from the environment ministry’s GEAC, it will become the first transgenic food crop to be commercially cultivated in India.
New Delhi: Controversy doesn’t seem to be ending for genetically modified (GM) mustard. Even as environmentalists continue to oppose it, a member of the Supreme Court’s expert committee that submitted a report on transgenic crops has now written to India’s nodal regulator for transgenic crops against making public only incomplete safety data related to field trials of GM mustard.
P.C. Kesavan, a geneticist and radiobiologist who is a member of the apex court’s Technical Expert Committee (TEC) that submitted a report to the apex court on GM crops, also said that giving less time to analyse the data will amount to “fooling the people”.
PTI | NEW DELHI: An anti-GM group today alleged that sub committee constituted by the country's biotech regulator GEAC to examine the biosafety data on GM mustard, did not have any health expert and three of its members have conflict of interest.
Coalition for a GM-Free India questioned whether the risk assessment report given by the sub committee, which has claimed that the hybrid does not not pose any risk to biodiversity or agro-ecosystem, was even "reliable and scientific" as it had no health experts in it.
New Delhi: Activists opposing genetically-modified (GM) crops claimed today that a Union government panel had raised "serious questions" about GM-mustard under appraisal for cultivation, but labelled it as safe for human and animal consumption without receiving adequate answers.
The Coalition for a GM-free India has claimed that documents made public by the Union environment ministry suggest that a subcommittee constituted by the ministry's regulatory panel on GM products had raised serious questions then turned away meekly without any scientific or satisfactory answers.
NEW DELHI: Conflict of interest in the sub-committee, lack of any health safety expert on the panel, and inadequate data on additional studies on bio-safety are some of the issues raised by an anti-GM body on the government’s recent proposal to clear genetically-modified (GM) mustard.
At a press conference here on Thursday, The Coalition for a GM-Free India alleged that the processes adopted by the government before calling for public comments on the proposal to give the food crop a go-ahead are “hasty.”
लेखक: के.सी. त्यागी।।
केंद्र सरकार द्वारा जनेटिकली मोडिफाइड बीजों यानी जीएम फसलों के प्रयोग के संकेत से किसान व पर्यावरण संरक्षण संगठन चिंतित हैं। उनमें से कुछ ने विरोध प्रदर्शन भी शुरू कर दिए हैं। वन एवं पर्यावरण मंत्रालय ने हाल ही में आनुवंशिक रूप से परिवर्धित यानी जीएम सरसों से जुड़ी टेक्निकल कमिटी की रिपोर्ट को सार्वजनिक किया है।
मंत्रालय के अनुसार जनेटिक इंजिनियरिंग अप्रूवल कमिटी (जीईएसी) की उप-समिति द्वारा जीएम सरसों की किस्म ‘डीएमएच-11’ के जैव विविधता और कृषि पारिस्थितिकी पर पड़ने वाले प्रभावों का अध्ययन कर रिपोर्ट जीईएसी को सौंपी जा चुकी है। रिपोर्ट में दावा किया गया है कि इससे जैव विविधता और पर्यावरण को किसी प्रकार का खतरा नहीं है। मतलब, सरकार जीएम सरसों को पर्यावरणीय मंजूरी देने का मन बना चुकी है। ऐसे में सरकार द्वारा विभिन्न पक्षों से 5 अक्टूबर तक मांगी गई जीएम संबंधी टिप्पणियां महज औपचारिकता हैं। वास्तविकता यही है कि मौजूदा केंद्र सरकार जीएम फसलों के उपयोग की पक्षधर है और इन्हें खेतों तक पहुंचाने के लिए तरह-तरह के हथकंडे अपना रही है।
Environment ministry’s genetic engineering panel the says states be given a maximum of 90 days to respond to applications for conducting confined field trials
New Delhi: Notwithstanding the heated debate on genetically modified (GM) crops, the Union government is looking to dilute provisions that require applicants to seek no-objection certificates (NOCs) from states for conducting field trials.
The environment ministry’s genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC), the nodal regulator for GM crops, has recommended that states be given a maximum of 90 days to respond to applications for conducting confined field trials, after which their nod should be deemed as given.
Former vice chancellor of Delhi University and geneticist Deepak Kumar Pental, who spearheaded the effort to develop transgenic mustard called DMH-11 that contains three genes sourced from soil bacterium, confirmed to The Hindu that one of the DMH-11 genes, called the bar gene, made the plant resistant to a herbicide (or weed killer) brand-named Basta, a product sold by multinational company Bayer Cropscience.
If cleared by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, a regulator that reports to the Ministry of Environment and Forests — it will be the first time a herbicide tolerant crop would be cleared for commercial use in India.
Madabhushi Sridhar | THE HANS INDIA, Information regarding genetically modified (GM) mustard shall be shared with consumers. Kavita Kuruganti sought for the agenda and minutes of Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC). CIC directed it to disclose. She approached the CIC against non-implementation of direction of disclosure, saying that the directions of CIC were not complied with, more than 50 days later. The regulators are just dilly-dallying.
Their website shows that they do not do this. Despite assurances in the CIC hearing and CIC Orders, their website clearly shows that the latest meeting agenda of June 20 was not put up nor were full minutes of other meetings. In the case of bio-safety data being sought, the resolution of the issue with the crop developer should have been over by now and all data should have been shared in the public domain.
NIKHIL M GHANEKAR, The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee's move comes in the wake of several state governments refusing to allow field trials of GM crops even after they were cleared by the union environment ministry.
In a controversial move that is likely to face opposition from state governments, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of union environment ministry has decided that it will give state governments only 90 days to grant their consent for confined field trials of genetically modified crops, failing which the ministry will consider it approved.
The GEAC is the apex body mandated with regulating the use of genetically modified organisms, including GM food crops. GEAC had decided back in 2011 that all applicants would be required to obtain an NOC from state governments in the first instance before issuance of approve letter for conduct of field trials.