{"id":354928,"date":"2025-07-14T05:06:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T10:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=354928"},"modified":"2025-07-14T05:06:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T10:36:44","slug":"punjab-clearance-for-confined-field-trials-of-gm-maize-serious-says-coalition-for-a-gm-free-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/punjab-clearance-for-confined-field-trials-of-gm-maize-serious-says-coalition-for-a-gm-free-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Punjab clearance for \u2018confined field trials\u2019 of GM maize \u2018serious\u2019, says Coalition for a GM-Free India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Even more serious was that only PAU\/Punjab Government issued NOC among 11 states that Bayer applied for clearance\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition for a GM-Free India has raised strong objections to issuance of no objection certificates by the Punjab Government for conducting confined field trials of two kinds of GM maize of Bayer (earlier Monsanto) in PAU, Ludhiana. \u00a0\u201cIt needs to be ascertained whether the NOC has been issued by the state government with the full knowledge of the political leadership in the state or not,\u201d said Kavitha Kuruganti, Co-Convenor of the Coalition for a GM-Free India, in a letter to the Union Agriculture Ministry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stating that \u201cthis one NOC of Punjab will cause a national repercussion given that the results from just one or two locations will be shown for an application by Bayer for commercial cultivation permission to these unsafe GM crops, as has happened in the past with HT mustard,\u201d she urged the state government to institute an inquiry on scientific basis of such NOCs and immediately withdraw them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more serious was that only the PAU\/Punjab Government issued NOC among 11 states that Bayer applied for clearance, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPunjab, more than any other state, has to be extremely cautious about hazardous technologies like HT and Bt GM technologies, given that they actually increase the usage of deadly agro-chemicals which impact both farmers and consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the acute environmental health crisis in Punjab, any use of more chemicals will be disastrous for the state,\u201d she said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the letter quoting minutes of the 155th meeting of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (dated June 9,  2025) available online, \u201cBayer, a notorious MNC known for its toxic products, has obtained a NOC from Punjab Government for GM maize trials\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cBayer (earlier, Monsanto) applied for penultimate stage trials for HT Maize (Event called NK603) and insect tolerant Bt Maize (Event called Event MON8903) in multiple locations of eleven states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPAU Ludhiana is the only one which seemed to have responded positively. Against this backdrop, Punjab Government \/PAU have to show what is the additional safety information that they hold than any other state,\u201d she said, also raising questions on PAU\u2019s track record on conducting \u201cconfined\u201d field trials in compliance of the statutory guidelines meant for such trials and called it \u201cpoor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, civil society groups have shown with photographic evidence such violations, with regard to HT Mustard trial, no action had been taken to fix liability for such violations, however,\u201d she added<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coalition also questioned how PAU can experiment with herbicide-tolerant maize that has been modified to withstand the application of glyphosate, which is against the legally-approved label claim for glyphosate in India\u2019s pesticides regulatory regime. \u201cGlyphosate was a deadly herbicide with a large body of scientific literature pointing to its negative impacts on human health and environment. In fact, the Punjab government had issued prohibitory orders on the use of glyphosate in the state, given that the Union Government was not acting in the interests of ordinary citizens,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even more serious was that only PAU\/Punjab Government issued NOC among 11 states that Bayer applied for clearance\u00a0 The Coalition for a GM-Free India has raised strong objections to issuance of no objection certificates by the Punjab Government for conducting confined field trials of two kinds of GM maize of Bayer (earlier Monsanto) in PAU, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":354929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2014],"tags":[19962,16002,19726],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354930,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354928\/revisions\/354930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/354929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}