Countering Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement on introducing Bt brinjal in the market, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on January 21 said the Centre has every right to take the final decision when public safety is concerned. Ramesh was responding to Pawar’s statement yesterday that the expert committee’s decision on the introduction of Bt brinjal will be final and the Centre does not have any say in the issue.

Differing with Pawar, Ramesh said the “expert panel may well be a statuary body but when critical issues of human safety are involved, the government has every right and in fact, has basic responsibility to take the final decision based on the panel’s suggestions.”

In a letter to Pawar written today, Ramesh said he was holding public consultations across the country before taking a final decision in the matter “since Bt brinjal will be the first genetically modified food crop and …I am well aware of the concerns that have been raised on this issue.”

Ramesh also brought to the notice of Pawar his letters to Chief Ministers of six important brinjal cultivating states including West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra. “In addition I have sought feedback from over 50 top scientists both in India and from abroad.”

Defending the ongoing public consultation processes, Ramesh said, “Mr. Pawar will agree that in a democracy like ours, we have to take decisions that have far-reaching consequences with the greatest degree of caution, with the greatest degree of transparency and after ensuring that all stakeholders have been heard to their satisfaction.”

Ramesh added that by January end he would windup all the public hearings and by February 20 he would be in a position to take a considered view on GEAC recommendations regarding Bt brinjal.

“I will then be sharing my final view with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well with you and the Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad,” the Minister added.

Amid public hearings being conducted by Ramesh, Pawar had said on the sidelines of a conference yesterday that “Govt. of India don’t have any opinion on it. The decisions of the expert committee on the issue are final. The Ministry does not have any say on the issue.”

The GEAC last year had given its nod for the commercial release of the Genetically-Modified brinjal based on the researches conducted by it.

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