Govt to put on website data on toxicity of Bt Cotton

NEW DELHI: Government on Wednesday agreed to make public data related to toxicity and allergenicity of Bt Cotton (GM) crops following a direction by the Supreme Court.
    
Additional Solicitor General Amarender Saran told the apex court that the government was willing to share the bulky data related to toxicity and allergenicity of Bt Cotton and he would also hand over a soft copy of it to all the petitioners.
   
On an application filed by Aruna Rodrigues, a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed the government to put data related to toxicity and allergenicity of GM crops on the website of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the only authority empowered to release GMOs into environment.
     
According to counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Rodrigues, several states did not have the required mechanism to monitor trials of GM crops and were flouting rules framed in 1989 under the Environment Protection Act.
    
Rodrigues' application stated that states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh were yet to constitute State Biotechnology Coordination Committees (SBCCs) which were necessary for monitoring and inspecting ongoing field trials.
    
According to the rules, the committees have the powers to inspect, investigate and take punitive action in case of violations of statutory provisions and can periodically review
the safety and control measures in the various industries and institutions handling genetically engineered organisms.
   
"The government should ensure that the State Biotechnology Coordination Committee and district level committees followed regulatory procedures before any field trials and took permission from state authorities and panchayats before every trial," he added.

According to Bhushan, the documents acquired through RTI applications showed that these states did not have such committees or even know about field trials of GM crops. Even states were not even sure if they had committees in place.
   
Other RTI documents collected showed that Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh were ignorant about the trials happening in their respective states, although GEAC was supposed to apprise the state governments of the approvals.
    
Rodrigues had sought a direction to the government to provide a comprehensive list of the 24 varieties and hybrids that were approved between May one and September 22, last year under nine listed crops, namely Bt Cotton, transgenic okra, tomato cauliflower, brinjal, rice, castor, groundnut and potato.
    
Stating that the Centre should provide a comprehensive list of field-approved or to be approved trials with their exact locations in each district and state before starting trials, the application had alleged that GEAC had taken a light view of the safeguards and regulatory mechanisms in its 78th meeting on June 22 this year.
    
Bhushan also sought removal of GEAC co-chairman Dr C D Mayee saying that "there would be conflict of interest if he was allowed to sit in the board of an organistaion which was being biotechnology companies."
  
However, All India Crop Biotech Association comprising biotech crop manufacturers, in its application sought permission to conduct field trials of all transgenic crops and
not only the 24 varieties allowed by the apex court.
    
According to it, the trials of certain crops had been conducted prior to May 2006 and it was necessary to conduct research so as to access the bio-safety of these crops.

The Association stated that GEAC was not permitting trial of these crops as the court had allowed only those crops for which trials were on since May to October 2006.
    
The application had been moved in view of the apex court's direction on May 8 allowing field trials of GM crops, which were earlier approved by GEAC in April and May last year subject to certain conditions.