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This from GM Watch:
dear friends,
The GEAC is meeting tomorrow in delhi. the companies would begin walking up for
approvals for various GM crops from this meeting onwards. We have put out two days
back evidence from our investigations on Monsanto's Bollgard II Bt cotton being
licensed to several companies like Mahyco, Rasi, Ajeet, Tulasi, Krishidhan and from
Nath Seeds' Fusion Bt Cotton trials to the media and to friends like you. we are
demanding that all field trials of all crops be declared invalid immediately for
the year and a moratorium put in place.
To put the pressure up on GEAC, we request you to please get involved in, and initiate
a fax action to important players.
please find attached below a letter that could be sent to GEAC and others. Please
put the letter on your organisation's letterhead and kindly fax it immediately to
the Chairperson of GEAC at the following fax number: 011-24363967.
Also send it to Dr Desh Deepak Verma, who acts as the Co-Chair in the absence of
a chairperson at 011-24361613 and email to ddverma@nic.in . Please send a copy to
Dr Ranjini Warrier, Member-Secretary, GEAC at 011-24363964 and email to warrier@nic.in
or warrier@menf.delhi.nic.in .
In addition, pls fax the same letter to Dr M K Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology
at 011-24362884, and email to mkbhan@dbt.nic.in or mk_bhan2003@yahoo.co.in since
there are many irregularities with trials permitted by the DBT .
You also need to mark a copy to:
1. Sharad Pawar, Minister for Agriculture at 011-24361727/24363958 and email to
am@krishi.nic.in
2. A Raja, Minister for Environment & Forests at 011-24362222 and email to mef@menf.delhi.nic.in
3. Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Minister for health and family welfare at 011-23061647/23061751
and email to hfm@alpha.nic.in
The emails can all be clubbed into one mail of course with the mail sent to Ranjini
Warrier, and copies marked to others, but pls make the effort of sending separate
faxes to all these important players.
i also request those of you who have not seen the report and evidence that we brought
out, to pls write to me and we would be able to send the report in english, telugu
and in hindi .
kavitha kuruganti
centre for sustainable agriculture
09393001550
---
The Chairperson
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/>Lodhi Road
New Delhi.
12th January 2005
Sub: Demand to cancel all field trials of GM crops in the country
Dear Sir/Madam,
You would have seen by now the alarming fresh evidence of biosafety violations and
unscientificity in GM crop trials that has been brought out by the Monitoring &
Evaluation Committee set up by civil society groups in the country, where
they have taken the case of Bollgard II and Fusion Bt Cotton as the case studies
for illustration. The report brought out by the MEC, based on investigations of
field trials from five states of the country, reiterates the evidence presented
from earlier suchinvestigations, including some recent evidence from food crops
like Bt Okra. It is appalling that the companies are flouting all norms of scientificity
and biosafety in such trials and putting the very lives and livelihoods of farmers
and consumers at risk. It is even more appalling that regulators like you are watching
as bystanders.
The findings of the MEC point out that all the companies involved in GM trials are
blatantly flouting the guidelines and norms of the Environment Protection Act, which
incidentally carries penal clauses of upto one lakh rupees fine and five years’
imprisonment. These irregularities also constitute violations of the principles
of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to which India is a signatory. Your monitoring
is extremely weak or even absent. Your failure to regulate is also resulting in
the companies already indulging in an advertising blitzkrieg about untested and
unapproved products and entrapping uneducated and uninformed farmers. This only
leads to the proliferation of illegal GM crops.
Untested and potentially hazardous GM products from these trials in more than 1600
locations have already contaminated the environment and the food/feed chain of the
country and this is completely unacceptable. The fact that the trials are conducted
in an unscientific manner, mostly in a manner that suits the convenience and interests
of the companies, also is a precursor for the disastrous results found on the ground
today with regard to Bt Cotton.
In the light of these clear findings, we demand:
- that the GEAC and RCGM cancel all limited and large scale field trials
of 2005 and suspend any more permissions. A moratorium be put into place with immediate
effect on such trials.
- that a full-blown investigation be carried out on all violations and
irregularities in all trials including past trials and food crop trials, by including
members of civil society in the investigation teams.
- that liability be fixed for violations witnessed so far. This should
include liability on the regulators as well as the companies
- that in all those cases where there are standing crops left for this
season, that the GEAC and DBT ensure that the crop is destroyed immediately and
farmers compensated by the companies
- that the GEAC and DBT ensure that farmers are compensated properly by
the companies also in all those cases where the field trials have created economic
and environmental losses for the participating farmers
Sincerely,
CC: Dr M K Bhan, Secretary, DBT
Shri A Raja, Hon'ble Minister for Environment & Forests, GoI
Shri Sharad Pawar, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture, GoI
Shri Anbumani Ramadoss, Hon’ble Minister for Health, GoI |
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