The farmers executed a very angry protest against Jairam Ramesh on Sunday. Jairam had to face this protest for his decision to introduce Genetically Modified (GM) Bt Brinjal in India. After facing this protest he made a conclusive announcement that a final decision over this issue will be taken within 10 days after consulting with all the persons concerned.
The ministry organised a public hearing to announce this launch. But the farmers, scientists, NGOs disrupted the hearing through the stage demonstration of their anger against it. Their demand from the government is to cancell this launch.
The ministry organised the public consultation at the Central Research Institute for Dryland
Agriculture (CRIDA). But the minister could not speak at this consultation because of the placards and slogans raised by the protesters.
The protesters also include tha All India Kisan Sabha members. In support of this protest, they put the arguement that GM crops like Bt Brinjal are not properly tested so they might adversely affect the human body.
They also added that GM crops would badly affect India’s self-reliance by hampering its national biodiversity. According to them it would also affect our economy.
A protester among the crowd shouted and told the ministry that they were present at the spot because they want the government to withdraw its decision of introducing GM crops and were not interested in the minister’s speech.
The minister requested the protesters to maintain calm and debate, but the protestors became deaf on his appeal. For restoring order the police interfered the matter and many protestors got arrested by the police for their reaction on minister’s appeal.
At last, Jairam Ramesh declared that final decision on the matter of Bt Brinjal would be taken within 10 days after proper public consultations.
He also said that the government has not taken the final decision yet and this meeting was organised with a porpose. The government want to know the opinion of various stakeholders on this launch before making the final decision. He also appealed the public to allow the public consultations properly.
The ministry had also organised similar public consultations at Kolkata during the early days of this month but there also it had to face same protest.
On Saturday, in delhi and other places farmers, some scientists, academics and NGOs undertook a fast for protesting this move of government to introduce GM crops.
The commercial release of Bt Brinjal has been approved last year by The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).
Before taking the decision, the ministry decided to organise public consultations as a member of the committee informed that all the tests have not done properly.
The cities where public consultations are being held include Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.