September 12, 2016 12:00 AM

तहलका न्यूज ब्यूरो

लखनऊ. देश एवं प्रदेश के नागरिकों के स्वास्थ्य, किसानों के बीज स्वावलंबन एवं जैविक खेती की रक्षा हेतु संशोधित जीन वाली (जीएम) सरसों के किसी भी रूप में उत्तर प्रदेश में स्वीकृति न दिये जाने के सम्बन्ध में भारतीय किसान यूनियन ने यूपी के सीएम अखिलेश यादव को एक पत्र लिखा है.

भारतीय किसान यूनियन के राष्ट्रीय प्रवक्ता राकेश टिकैत ने अखिलेश यादव को लिखा है कि देश के सबसे बड़े राज्य के रूप में उत्तरप्रदेश एवं यहाँ की सरकार की देश के विकास की दशा और दिशा तय करने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका रहती है. आप के नेतृत्व में किसान एवं जन हितैषी राज्य सरकार ने जीएम फसलों के खतरे को पहले ही भांप लिया है और राज्य में जीएम फसलों के क्षेत्र परीक्षण तक की अनुमति नहीं दी। अधिकांश अन्य राज्य सरकारों, जिन में सरसों बोने वाले मुख्य राज्य राजस्थान, मध्यप्रदेश एवं हरियाणा भी शामिल हैं, ने भी जीएम फसलों के खेत परीक्षण तक की अनुमति नहीं दी है। समाजवादी पार्टी पूर्व से ही इन फसलों के विरोध में रही है, आपके द्वारा भी पूर्व में इन फसलों को अनुमति न दिये जाने का आश्वासन किसान संगठनों को दिया जाता रहा है.

September 11, 2016 03:12 PM

NIHAR GOKHALE, Supporters of Genetically Modified Mustard argue that using the high-tech seed will improve India's mustard seed production, and help India reduce its Rs 65,000 crore bill on importing edible oils.

However, looking deeper into this import bill and its history reveals that this argument doesn't really hold. In fact, the reference to imports brings to light how India's self-sufficiency in edible oils was eroded by the 1991 economic reforms and joining the World Trade Organisation.

The measures also caused large losses to oilseed farmers, including mustard-rapeseed growers. The reference to import bills also highlights contradictions in India's international mustard trade, and the government's skewed trade policies on edible oils that continue to affect the whole oil extraction industry, and a problem whose solution lies less in GM technology and more in correcting trade policies.

September 09, 2016 08:01 PM

New Delhi, (PTI) Accusing GEAC of "serious non- governance" and undertaking an "underground process to hide its misdeed", lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan today shot off a notice to the biotech regulator, asking it to make public the full biosafety dossier of GM mustard.

Noting that the risk assessment report put up by the Environment Ministry is of "limited value", the notice sent by Bhushan to Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) chairman Amita Prasad also asked the regulator to provide a minimum time of 120 days for feedback on the report to allow independent scientists nationally and internationally to respond.

September 09, 2016 12:48 PM

India is steeped in a synthesised controversy created by Monsanto on the first GM crop, supposedly approved for commercialisation. Engaged in litigation on many fronts, Monsanto is trying to subvert our patent laws, Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, Essential Commodities Act and Competition Act. It is behaving as if there is no Parliament, no democracy, no sovereign laws in India to which it is subject. Or it simply doesn’t have any regard for them. In another theatre, Monsanto and Bayer are merging. They were one as MoBay (MonsantoBayer), part of the poison cartel of I.G. Farben. The controlling stakes of both corporations lie with the same private equity firms. The expertise of these firms is in war. I.G. Farben, Adolf Hitler’s economic powerhouse and pre-war Germany’s highest foreign exchange earner, was also a foreign intelligence operation. Hermann Schmitz was president of I.G. Farben, Schmitz’s nephew Max Ilgner was a director of I.G. Farben, while Max’s brother Rudolph Ilgner ran the New York arm as vice-president of Chemnyco.

September 09, 2016 12:24 AM

Subhayan Chakraborty | New Delhi, Activists have claimed that the environment safety assessment of the genetically modified (GM) variety of mustard, recently cleared as safe by a technical panel of the government, involved significantly fewer tests than had been done for the last such food crop, BT brinjal.

A technical sub-committee under the environment ministry had, on Monday, declared the Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11) seed and the technology behind it to be safe for human consumption and the environment.

September 09, 2016 12:05 AM

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) An anti-GM group today alleged that many tests for health safety assessment for GM mustard have not been done.

Kavitha Kuruganti of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) alleged that many tests for health safety assessment for GM mustard have not been done.

ASHA which did a comparison between the processes adopted during assessment of BT brinjal and GM mustard, said that more exhaustive assessment was done for the former.

September 08, 2016 01:20 PM

Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, Several officials who sit on India’s biotech regulator, which is preparing to take a decision on genetically modified mustard, are also associated with global organisations that lobby for GM crops, HT has learnt.

Such an arrangement represents potential conflicts of interest, according to critics, who argue that there must be an arm’s length distance.

On Wednesday, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), the regulator empowered to clear transgenic crops for commercialisation, released an assessment report of genetically modified (GM) mustard on its website for public comments.

September 08, 2016 08:39 AM

Genetically-modified (GM) mustard could become a poll issue in the upcoming Punjab Assembly Elections, 2017, with debutante Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) promising to take it up vehemently.

AAP Minister, Kapil Mishra, told Mail Today on Wednesday that the "harmful" mutated version was a "direct attack on Punjab's identity which is known for its lush yellow, mustard fields." He said the party would mobilise environmentalists, farmers' groups and consumer unions on GM mustard's "hazardous effects."

September 08, 2016 05:07 AM

New Delhi: With the environment ministry’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) seeking public opinion on commercialization of genetically modified (GM) mustard, the politics around the contentious transgenic crop has begun to heat up.

September 08, 2016 12:00 AM

BHUBANESWAR, Thirty years back, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundation of what was later called Yellow Revolution. The Oilseeds Technology Mission he launched in 1986 transformed India from being a major importer of edible oil to being self-sufficient in 1993-94, that is, in less than a decade. It was a remarkable achievement, indeed.

Then a downslide started. India bowed to World Trade Organisation pressures to kill its Yellow Revolution. The demise of the Yellow Revolution is a classic case of how a promising sector was sacrificed at the altar of economic liberalisation.

September 07, 2016 06:47 PM

Manon Verchot, This week the Environment Ministry released a report finding that genetically-modified mustard is not harmful to health.

The report, submitted by a sub-committee of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, was largely criticised by anti-GMO activists, who claim data in favour of GM mustard is skewed. Though research suggests genetically modified mustard yields could be 30 percent higher than native species, activists say GM seeds were only compared to low-yield varieties.

September 07, 2016 05:41 PM

டெல்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகம் வெளியிட்டுள்ள ‘டி.எச்.எம். 11’ என்ற ரகத்தோடு மூன்று மரபணு மாற்று கடுகு ரகங்களை மத்திய சுற்றுச்சூழல் மற்றும் வனத்துறை அமைச்சகத்தின் கட்டுப்பாட்டில் உள்ள ‘மரபணு மாற்றுப் பயிர்களுக்கான அனுமதியளிக்கும் குழு’ ஒப்புதல் தெரிவித்துள்ளது. நாடெங்கிலும் பல்வேறு எதிர்ப்புகள் கிளம்பியும் அனுமதி வழங்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

மரபணு மாற்றம் செய்யப்பட்ட கடுகு ரகம், இயல்பிலேயே பல சிக்கல்கள், பாதகங்களை தனக்குள் கொண்டுள்ள போதிலும் அவை, திட்டமிட்டே மறைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. இவற்றை அனுமதித்தால், இந்தியக் கூட்டாட்சித் தத்துவத்துக்கும் மாநில உரிமைகளுக்கும் சவாலாக இருக்கும். இதே வகையான கடுகை ஏற்கெனவே 'பேயர்' (Bayer) என்ற பன்னாட்டு நிறுவனம் உருவாக்க அனுமதி கேட்டபோது மறுக்கப்பட்டது.

September 07, 2016 04:16 PM

PTI | New Delhi, It argued Indian farmers have proved high yields can be obtained through sustainable agronomic processes and termed as false the claims of higher yield through the GM mustard.

JD(U) today said the Centre’s move of collecting public feedback on the risk assessment report on GM mustards by an expert committee “reeks of non-serious intent” and demanded that the hybrid variety should not be approved for commercial release.

It argued Indian farmers have proved high yields can be obtained through sustainable agronomic processes and termed as alse the claims of higher yield through the GM mustard. “The three GMOs (genetically modified crops), according to its developers, will have higher yields, but they have been silent about the fact that the GM mustard has been engineered to be herbicide tolerant,” the party said in a letter to Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave.

September 07, 2016 03:45 PM

New Delhi: JD(U) workers stage a demonstration against genetically-modified (GM) mustard in New Delhi, on Sept 6, 2016. An Environment Ministry sub-committee report declared the GM mustard technology safe for consumption and environment, saying that it does not raise any public health concerns for human beings and animals, but environmentalists are not satisfied and have been demanding that the ministry should make all the documents on the study available.The environment ministry has asked for comments from the public, before Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) takes the final decision on GM mustard. Comments can be submitted till October 5.

September 07, 2016 09:27 AM

Jayashree Nandi | TNN | NEW DELHI: A day after the environment ministry released a "Safety assessment report of the sub-committee on GM mustard" which concluded that the transgenic crop has cleared all safety tests and is safe for human consumption, a Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) member and noted molecular biologist, Pushpa M Bhargava said the report wasn't shared or discussed with GEAC members before MoEF released it on their website.

"I am a member of GEAC and the norm is to first discuss the findings with GEAC members. That was not done. The GEAC appointed the sub-committee to draft the report so the report should have come to us first. Also, this is not the biosafety study, it is only an assessment of the main study. This information is scanty. I think the ministry is superseding the system," he told TOI. GEAC is the apex body on GM crops.