Chandigarh: Farm activists demand action on 'illegal' Bt Brinjal cultivation in Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Farm activists have demanded immediate action on suspected illegal Bt Brinjal cultivation in Haryana. Sharing their findings with media persons in Chandigarh on Wednesday, the activists said that while acting on a tip-off about the same, they collected sample from the impugned farm, and conducted a lateral flow strip test for detection of Bt Cry1AC protein test which showed a positive result of the suspected sample being transgenic.
While a sample has been sent to a private testing laboratory for further confirmation, a group of representatives of farmers' and consumers' organizations as well as scientists from the region submitted another sample to director-general, agriculture, Ajit Balaji Joshi and director general of horticulture Arjun Saini as well as the government of India's apex regulatory body, genetic engineering appraisal committee, demanding further investigations and action.
"There is a good reason why government of India had not approved Bt Brinjal for commercial cultivation in the country in 2010. All the environmental and health concerns with regard to this transgenic food crop remain and there is a grave danger of illegal Bt Brinjal cultivation proliferating if central and state governments do not act on our complaint immediately. Our investigations show that the seedling supply of this suspected Bt Brinjal has happened last year itself and it is not clear how far is the extent of illegal cultivation of this unapproved crop," said Dr Rajinder Chaudhary, a retired professor of economics and sustainable farming activist adding that this is a very important and urgent matter of concern and demanded immediate and deterrent action to be initiated by the concerned authorities.
The activists shared that in February 2010, after nationwide consultations and extensive public debate lasting a couple of months, government of India had placed an infinite moratorium on commercial release of Bt Brinjal conveying "till such time independent scientific studies establish to the satisfaction of both the public and professionals the safety of the product from the point of view of its long-term impact on human health and environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our country".
Gurnam Singh, president, Bhartiya Kisan Union of Haryana said that moratorium is still under way and has not been lifted since no such evidence of safety has been produced by the crop developers so far. He was of the view that cultivation of Bt Brinjal that is taking place is not only illegal, but also puts human health and genetic purity of thousands of brinjal varieties that evolved over millennia at great irreversible danger.
Umendra Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission said, "Our delegation demanded that the state government immediately investigate this case and take legal action against the seed/seedling supply network of illegal Bt Brinjal and in order to control further damage, it should also destroy all Bt Brinjal plots. However, no penal action should be taken against farmers who have been duped into cultivating these illegal seeds. Rather, they must be fully compensated for destruction of their standing crop."
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