Ajit Singh seeks Vajpayee’s intervention on GM products

He clarified that he had not changed his stance on GM foods but since the the Environment Protection Act (EPA) already existed, the government just had to frame the laws to increase the safeguards. He said that the Environment Ministry must issue a notification under the EPA, making it mandatory for importers to issue a declaration that their imported food products are not genetically modified at the point of entry into the country.

He regretted that despite the urgency of the matter, effective steps have not been taken by the Environment Ministry. He said that since the government has not decided whether they want to let these imports in, the Genetic Approval Committee has to decide on a case-to-case basis.

Singh also said that laboratories were put in place which would be able to conduct tests to detect whether this oil was made of genetically modified soyabean. ‘‘Although the tests are often not conclusive,’’ he said.

‘‘Rules must be formulated, a system put in place and requisite tests conducted to ascertain whether the GM soya oil has a negative impact on the environment,’’ he said.

Recently, Food Minister Shanta Kumar described the testing of soya oil for its GM sources as impractical and said such testing is likely to result in monopoly of palm oil in India’s imports.

Owing to a favourable tariff regime, soya oil imports shot up to 14.14 lakh tonnes in 2000-01 (Nov-Oct) from 6.87 lakh tonnes in the previous year.