BT Brinjal,another shocking news...

Hi friendz....

from de various posts in our blog we have understood dat Bt Brinjal, a genetically modified version of the common vegetable, and its proposed introduction in India has become a topic of debate not only among scientists but politicians as well....
.....The insertion of the gene into the vegetable is said to give the brinjal plant resistance against insects like the brinjal fruit, shoot borer, fruit borer... when the insects eat Bt Brinjal what happens is that there would be disruption of their digestive processes, ultimately resulting in death........

......................who all supported????
....The government's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), which cleared Bt Brinjal for commercial release in October, said it will reduce the farmers' dependence on pesticides and enable higher yields.....GEAC was supported by Science and Technology Minister Mr.Prithviraj Chauhan, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Director General Samir Brahmachari and Department of Biotechnology Secretary M.K. Bhan, among others. They have all said Bt Brinjal is safe for human consumption.....

...when the issues started Agriculture Minister Mr.Sharad Pawar has said the government has no role to play once GEAC has given its approval.... Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh pointed out in a letter to Pawar last week that final approval has to be given by the Environment Ministry...

...Mr.Ramesh is now holding public meetings on the issue in various cities such as Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur and Ahmedabad, and he said there was vociferous opposition to the introduction of Bt Brinjal..
....from tdays NDTV news headline it is evident that Mr.Jairam loses his cool...he was conducting public meeting at Banglore tday and he faced a strong n violent opposition from public.....he commented "democracy has limits..."...he also told that he will tell civil servants what to do.....

....in the public meetings conducted by Mr.Ramesh, opponents to Bt Brinjal told they r worried on 2 counts
1) what happens if der is accidental cross pollination between Bt and ordinary brinjal?wil de modified gene get into the normal brinjal? if so what wil the consequences be?
2)what are the long-term effects of Bt Brinjal on human health, given that long-term trials have not been held since de prodct is too new for dat?

....Supreme Court appointee to GEAC, Mr. Pushpa Bhargava, founder director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biolgy had now alleged that all necessary tests had not been carried out before the committee gave its approval....he told dat GEAC had kept its test reports under wraps, saying dat developers of seed-US firm Monsanto and Indian firm Mahyco wanted de information kept confidential in de resarch & development stages"...he also told dat Mr.Jairam was under pressure from de Prime Minister's Office to clear Bt Brinjal....

......de really shocking news......
... European Union has banned all genetically modified crops while many others ban genetically modified food crops....where as in our country India, GEAC people told many more genetically modified food crops are after Bt Brinjal awaiting GEAC approval -- 25 kinds of rice, 23 kinds of tomatoes, many types of groundnut, pigeon peas, potato, mustard, sugarcane, soy and okra.......