MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS(SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH)
(a) to (g) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN THE REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (g) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION
NO. 379 BY SHRI MANISH TEWARI REGARDING GM FOODS DUE FOR REPLY ON 21.04.2010
(a) The Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) and the Genetic Engineering
Approval Committee (GEAC) have been established under ‘Rules for the Manufacture,
Use/Import/Export and Storage of Hazardous Micro Organisms (HMOs) / Genetically Engineered
Organisms (GMOs) or Cells notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on December 5,
1989 under the provisions of the ‘Environment (Protection) Act’, 1986 in the Department of
Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Environment and
Forests, respectively. The mandate of RCGM is to
(i) monitor the safety related aspects
in respect of on-going research projects and activities involving GMOs/ HMOs;
(ii) bring out
Manuals of guidelines specifying procedures for regulatory processes with a view to ensure
environmental safety; and
(iii) review all ongoing projects of high risk category and
controlled field experiments to ensure that adequate precautions and containment conditions
are followed as per the guidelines. The GEAC is the apex body having a mandate to accord
approval of activities involving
(i) large scale use of hazardous microorganisms and
recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle; and
(ii)
environmental release of GMOs and products including experimental field trials.
(b) to (d) The GEAC is the apex body to grant approvals for large scale use and
environmental release of GMOs under the above said Rules. The GEAC in its meeting held on
14.10.2009, concluded that Bt Brinjal is safe for environmental release. However, the Committee
decided that “Since this decision of the GEAC will have major policy implications, the GEAC
decided to forward the recommendations and report of the Expert Committee on the safety and
efficacy of Bt brinjal event EEI to the Government for a final viewâ€. Subsequent to this
decision, the Ministry had organized public consultations at seven locations (mainly brinjal
growing areas) namely Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Chandhigarh, Hyderabad and
Bangalore during January –February, 2010. As part of the consultation process, the Minister
had also written to several Chief Ministers of brinjal growing States as well as national and
international experts to elicit their views on this GM crop. Several concerns emerged
including those voiced by some Scientists during the national consultations which include
health issues, loss of biodiversity, loss of indigenous varieties through contamination of
gene pool, sustainability of the technology, consumer choice and labeling, adequacy of
regulatory process, etc. In the absence of scientific consensus and opposition from the
State Governments and others, the Minister on February 09, 2010 decided to impose a moratorium
on commercialization of Bt brinjal until all concerns expressed by the public, NGOs, scientists
and the State Governments are addressed adequately. Decision of the Minister which includes
views of various stakeholders can be viewed at MoEF website (www.envfor.nic.in).
(e) & (f) The GEAC has been requested to address concerns that have emerged during the
public consultations for resolving all scientific issues relating to Bt brinjal in
consultations with eminent scientists.
(g) The GM food crops which are in the research pipeline as on 1.4.2010 include, rice,
okra, brinjal, potato, groundnut, tomato, corn, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, wheat, sorghum,
watermelon, sugarcane, papaya, apple, black pepper, black gram, capsicum, cardamom, cassava,
chickpea, chili, cowpea, cucumber, finger millet, lettuce, mulberry, muskmelon, pea, pearl
millet, pigeon pea, pomegranate, soybean, and tea,
