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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Withdraw Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill, says D Raja-Gargi Parsai

Withdraw Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill, says D Raja-Gargi Parsai

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published Published on May 5, 2013   modified Modified on May 5, 2013
-The Hindu

 

The CPI leader, in his letter to Jaipal, cites "conflict of interest"

Close on the heels of 17 MPs urging Science and Technology Minister Jaipal Reddy to withdraw from the Lok Sabha the recently introduced Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, CPI leader D. Raja has also expressed "serious reservations" over the Bill, which provides for a single-window clearance mechanism for genetically modified crops.

Urging Mr. Reddy to withdraw the Bill that did not go through serious pre-legislative consultations and on which there were serious concerns over "conflict of interest," Mr. Raja instead sought "Bio-Safety Protection" legislation, the broad contours of which had already been recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture.

In a letter to the Minister, Mr. Raja, Rajya Sabha member, said while the Ministry of Environment and Forests was the nodal Ministry on biotechnology regulation, the Ministry of Science and Technology tabling the Bill was "unacceptable." "The other reason for objection is also related to the inherent conflict of interest in that your Ministry is one of the promoting Ministries, just as the Ministry of Agriculture is," he said.

Expressing concerns about "violation of the federal polity," Mr. Raja said the Bill negated the fact that the State governments had a constitutional authority over agriculture. "It appears the current reservations on transgenic crops and foods by the State governments do not suit the Union government's corporate-friendly policies (given that this kind of push for transgenic will ultimately benefit not our farmers but only profiteering corporations) and the Centre would like to steamroll the State governments into accepting GMOs being thrust through a fast-track, single-window clearance system."

He rued that the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture that examined the issue of GM crops and the regulatory system were also ignored. "The panel had expressly said that the country does not need a BRAI but an umbrella Bio-safety Authority and asked for a new statute to be brought in for setting up such an authority, after public consultations, along the lines of the Norwegian gene technology Act," Mr. Raja said.


The Hindu, 4 May, 2013, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/withdraw-biotechnology-regulatory-authority-bill-says-d-raja/article4682162.ece


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