GEAC should not adopt double standard: P M Bhargava

Hyderabad, July 18 (UNI) Mr P M Bhargava, a special Invitee to the GEAC, appointed by Supreme Court, today charged the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) with adopting double standards in approving Genetically Modified (GM) products.

In a letter to the GEAC, which was released to the press here, he said, ''though I do not actively support the CICR cotton variety or hybrid by the Monsanto/Mahyco or any other company, the GEAC should not exhibit double standards by approving products of certain companies and not of others, and that varieties, as a rule, must get precedence over hybrids.'' Differing with the minutes of the recent GEAC meeting, he said he had only sought clarification from the GEAC whether the state government's permission was required for the Bt Okra trials.

''If the permission of the state government is required, then how could the Bt okra trials started on the basis of panchayat's permission ?'' he asked.

Reiterating that the Bt Brinjal trials were carried out unprofessionally, he said ''I have given reasons to the GEAC that why I believe the trials were unprofessional.'' On the large number of death of cattle, after consuming remnants of cotton plants, he said, '' proper experiments should be done to look into the chronic toxicity of remnants of cotton plants left after harvesting cotton.'' UNI VA DS RL UCS1835