Nigerians stocked food, water, hid in house for days
NEW DELHI: The two Nigerians arrested for running a narcotics manufacturing unit from a house in Greater Noida had stocked enough food and water to last for months and did not step out as they did not want to be being seen in the neighbourhood.
Officials said they had been smuggling the drugs through courier services and international passengers. Following their interrogation, the NCB conducted raids in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai on Sunday. On Saturday, the NCB arrested the two Nigerians and recovered 1818kg pseudoephedrine worth an estimated ₹1,000 crore and 1.9kg cocaine from them. The NCB got wind of the unit after they arrested a South African woman from Delhi airport on Thursday with 24.7 kgs of pseudoephedrine. A senior NCB officer probing the seizure said a detailed search of the house that belongs to an IPS officer, now posted with the UP police’s economic offences wing in Lucknow, led to the recovery of packaged food and water. NEWDELHI: Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Sunday wrote to environment minister Harsh Vardhan pointing to lapses which may have led to illegal cultivation of genetically modified Bt Brinjal in Haryana.
A test report of a private lab in Ahmedabad was enclosed with the letter. The report says Brinjal samples collected from a farm in Haryana’s Fatehabad have tested positive for genetically modified traits. “The sample was analysed for GMO [genetically modified organisms] presence or absence by real-time qualitative PCR [Polymerase Chain Reaction]… according to the test plant, GMO was detected,” said the report.
Samples from Fatehabad had tested positive for genetically modified traits after farm activists conducted lateral flow strip tests on them. This prompted the Haryana government last week to sent samples from Fatehabad to National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR).
Haryana’s horticulture department officials said they haven’t received NBPGR results.
Bhushan’s letter urged the government to act immediately. “…uproot and destroy planted Bt Brinjal in farms and seedlings in nurseries, undertake a scaled-up exercise of testing of seeds and plantings, ascertain the supply chain -- from seed developers to intermediaries -- who are involved? What is the origin of the seed supply? Stiff penalties including criminal prosecution are required.”
Bhushan cited the urgency of containing any further contamination of Bt Brinjal. He said nothing short of a self-imposed moratorium was required immediately on the environmental release of any GMO, including field trials.
He said the illegal cultivation of Bt Brinjal in Haryana would justify criminal proceedings against individuals and corporations that have participated in and facilitated its illegal sale and cultivation. Vardhan said he has not seen the letter. “But I will go through it as soon as it reaches me. I read about it [Bt Brinjal]. I have asked my department to give a detailed report on the issue. I may be briefed about it tomorrow [Monday] morning.” NEW DELHI: We are reaching the end of the Lok Sabha elections. Many political parties promised to fight pollution in their manifestos. And many people were relieved. I want to say this : it’s good news, but it won’t win us the public battle for a safer, cleaner India. We need an economic and social paradigm shift for this. Nobody has promised this revolution and it can’t be done in five years anyway. So, manifestos are, at best, a tool in the hands of the public.
Consider just one issue — cancer. The Lancet’s May Oncology issue suggests that cancers in mid and lower income countries are on the rise. This includes lung cancer, directly impacted by air pollution.
The Down to Earth, quoting the Lancet, points out that cancers have gone up by 112% between 1990 and 2016. Also, that India’s share in cancer deaths is over 8%. Air pollution is among the causes.
We can’t deceive ourselves into believing that political parties can handle this environmental and health catastrophe on their own. We are essential to ensure they do.
After we vote, we must ready ourselves for a whole other kind of participatory citizenship. Some of the elements of this we’ve used before: developing a public voice based on data, campaigning, leaning on the courts and staying informed.
But it hasn’t pushed back the scale of damage. We have to find our public scale up. No matter what the election outcomes, merely voting is far from enough. It’s only the first step.