GM mustard: Nothing to hide, says govt

The government today said it does not want to hide from the people anything on development of genetically modified crops, a day after the Central Information Commission directed the Environment Ministry to put bio-safety data of GM mustard in public domain.
"We have put all the things clearly. GM mustard commercialisation permission has not been given. After eight years of trials, results have come in with regards to food safety and experiment is going on. There is nothing to hide in that. Our government does not want to hide anything from the people," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.
Taking the example of Kelloggs, the minister said there are times when people eat GM corn while edible oil which is being imported is made by genetically modifying it.

"But if we have to give any permission to any GM crop in the country, then there should be no playing with the health of the people," he said.
The Central Information Commission had yesterday directed the Environment Ministry to share a copy of the bio-safety document related to genetically-modified mustard and the raw data of studies with the caveat that provisions of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety as well as confidentiality should be kept in mind.
The transparency panel also directed that the entire bio- safety data pertaining to all other genetically modified crops in the pipeline be put in the public domain as that is part of voluntary disclosures under Section IV of the RTI Act.

The ministry had objected to the disclosure of the data, saying the information is exempted under the RTI clause related to commercial confidence of the third party -- the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants.