Why only few countries growing GM crops?

NEW DELHI: The Standing Committee of Parliament has raised its eyebrows over the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country. In a report tabled in the Parliament, the panel has asked the government to find out as why 17 of the world’s most developed 20 countries have not yet introduced GM crops farming.

“Even after 21 years of the introduction of GM crops, 90 per cent of the world’s GM crops are being produced in six countries, including India. What is the reason that GM technology, claiming to be the most advanced technology in agriculture, has been adopted by only a few countries,” the Standing Committee of the Parliament of Science and Technology, Environment and Forest Affairs, chaired by Congress MP Anand Sharma, said.

The panel in its report has asked the government to do a comparative study as why a majority of countries have adopted GM technology and only a few have introduced the modified crops farming. The panel has also suggested the government to find out the future prospects of the GM crops in India.

“It has been found that the regulatory standards for accepting GM crops are strictly on paper only, but in reality, it is quite weak. It is surprising that after the availability of so many steps of the investigation, the decisions are taken by relying only on the figures given by the applicant for the environmental impact assessment of the GM crop,” the panel said in its report.

The committee in its report has recommended field trials in its monitoring through an independent body with the help of agricultural universities for environmental impact assessment. The committee has also raised a pertinent question in the report saying that in their study no evidence found about the long-term study of the effect of GM crops on human health prior to permitting GM crops.

Rapping Department of Health Research (DHR), the committee said that how the DHR approved the commercial production of GM crops without studying the impact on human health. BENGALURU: A wheelchair-bound passenger on Tuesday alleged he was not allowed to board an Air India flight from Bengaluru to Kolkata on December 17 as he had declined to “remove wires” from the battery of his wheelchair.

Kaushik Majumdar, an Associate Professor at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), told PTI here that the battery is disconnected every time the wheelchair is loaded in the aircraft and this time too he disconnected it.

“Some weird staff, however, insisted on removing all the wires from the battery, which would have completely ruined the equipment, on which I depend,” he said, adding, he declined to do so.

Majumdar said he never faced this type of a “weird” situation since he started travelling by Air India after joining the ISI as a faculty member in 2009. “My electric wheelchair is always loaded in the cargo hold and this time too it was to be loaded there.i never asked for its loading inside the passenger area,” he said.

In all airlines including Air India, disconnecting the battery from the wheelchair joystick controller is enough, Majumdar said.

“Why then an exception was made in AI 776 on December 17? Who are responsible? I want an answer,” he said.

Even the CISF smoothly cleared the chair, but right before boarding some Air India staff raised security issues with the battery, he said.