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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'Anti-national' tag on GM nod

'Anti-national' tag on GM nod

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published Published on May 14, 2017   modified Modified on May 14, 2017
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan today urged environment minister Anil Dave to reject a regulatory panel's recommendation to release genetically modified mustard for commercial cultivation, questioning the regulatory process and claims about the plant's superiority.

In a letter to Dave, Bhushan cited a Supreme Court hearing on GM crops and described India's regulatory mechanisms for such crops as "farcical". He asked Dave to "withhold" his approval to the GM mustard, DMH11, developed by Delhi University scientists.

Bhushan added that claims that DMH11 would help increase mustard yields by 25 to 30 per cent were "not true". He argued that India's best-performing non-GM hybrids and other varieties were already "significantly outperforming" DMH 11.

The environment ministry's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) had earlier this week recommended to the ministry that GM mustard be approved for commercial release.

A GEAC subcommittee had last year looked at dossiers of data furnished by scientists and observed that the GM mustard was safe for human and animal consumption and did not raise public health or safety concerns.

Plant molecular biologist Deepak Pental, who led the scientific team that developed the GM mustard, has said the technology was independently assessed through field trials by agricultural scientists and the data sent to the GEAC after extensive studies.

"We have developed a generic technology that will allow us to make hybrids in large quantities using any two parents," Pental said today.

"This technology may be used to increase yields. This is important for mustard because mustard yields have been stagnating."

But those campaigning against GM mustard and seeking better regulatory oversight mechanisms say the GM mustard is irrelevant to the country.

"This mustard does not out-yield India's best varieties: this has been admitted by the Union government in court," said Aruna Rodrigues, who had filed her petition opposing the introduction of GM crops in 2005.

"None of the three transgenes in the GM mustard carries a trait for yield. This mustard is entirely irrelevant to India, and its approval is dangerous and anti-national."

The environment ministry had on Friday uploaded a document on its website saying the country's regulatory agencies had "thoroughly assessed" the GM mustard for toxicity and determined that it did not pose any threat to humans or animals. The document was missing from the website today.

Please click here to read more.

The Telegraph, 13 May, 2017, https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170514/jsp/nation/story_151536.jsp


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