BKU gives the call for 'GM free India'

Hardwar, June 18 (UNI) The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which has been taking up various issues of farmers, has now given a call to make India free from genetically modified (GM) crops.

''Genetically modified crops adversely affect health and environment and are in the interests of neither the farmers nor the consumers'', said Mahendra Singh Tikait, the BKU supremo.

Tikait, who had come here to participate in the three day annual Kisan Panchayat of different states of north India, was talking to reporters last evening on the second day of the Panchayat. .

The Kisan leader warned the government of the adverse effects of globalisation on the farming sector. He alleged that attempts to introduce GM crops, such as BT cotton, were a conspiracy to destroy indigenous seeds and traditional knowledge of the Indian farmers.

Davendra Sharma, an agriculture scientist who is the co-ordinator of ''Coalition for GM free India'' and who accompanied Tikait, said that BT cotton, which was introduced in 2002 in Maharashtra and some other states to minimize the use of pesticides, did not benefit the farmers in any way.'' Now the government is planning to introduce BT brinjals. Brinjals are used in the kitchens of the common people in the country. The BT brinjals will have the gene of a bacteria inside the brinjal, which will be much more harmful than the pesticides and chemicals sprayed on the crop from outside'', he said.

He also said that in tests conducted in Andhra Pradesh 1,200 goats and sheep died after consuming the leaves of BT brinjals. '' BT brinjals, being introduced by the government, is the first GM food crop of the world.

The government laboratories were also conducting research on 15 more genetically modified crops, including BT rice and BT tomato'', he said. He further said that the ''coalition for GM free India'', of which the BKU is a leading partner, was trying to create awareness among the farmers and the consumers regarding the disastrous effects of genetically modified crops UNI XC SY GC1215