BT Brinjal issue: CPI seeks PM's intervention
The CPI on Tuesday sought the Prime Minister's intervention to restrain Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh from announcing any decision favouring Bt Brinjal on Wednesday, saying the opposition of several state governments has not been considered.
"The Minister is in haste to clear the decks for Bt Brinjal on the basis of the views expressed by multinational companies like Monsanto," the CPI Central Secretariat said in a hard-hitting statement here.
Noting that there was "widespread opposition" to Bt Brinjal, the party said even the public hearings organised by Ramesh "in arbitrarily selected metros ended in a kind of anarchic situation due to opposition".
It said the Minister "never bothered to understand" why several state governments like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal were opposing it.
Ramesh also "never thought" that agriculture, being a concurrent subject, the Bt Brinjal issue should have been discussed by state assemblies and a meeting of state Agriculture Ministers should have been held.
Observing that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also acknowledged the genuine concerns and apprehension about genetically-modified foods, it said the Minister, however, was "over-enthusiastic to support Bt Brinjal" and "has been threatening to announce a decision in a day or two".
The CPI urged the PM to "intervene in the matter without delay and restrain the Minister from announcing any decision on a very sensitive issue of Bt Brinjal."
Gujarat appeals Centre not to permit Bt Brinjal
Gujarat Government has appealed to the Centre to defer its move to give approval for commercial farming of Bt Brinjal in the country.
"The Centre should take into account the views of all stakeholders and conduct a long-term research on Bt Brinjal's bio-safety and its consequent contributions to food security and farmers' well being," Gujarat Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani told PTI over phone today.
Sanghani's statement follows Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's declaration to announce his decision on the issue on February 10. The agriculture minister has convened an emergency meeting of Gujarat's four agricultural universities in Gandhinagar on February 10 to discuss about the issue with experts.
"Why should the Union Environment Minister come under pressure from multi national companies (MNCs) and ignore the opinions of huge population of the country ?" he asked. The minister wondered the reason for giving up traditional farming of brinjal even as the genetically modified crop's safety was yet to be evaluated.
BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are not in favour of accepting the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal, he added.
