Sangh affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) wants probe against officials of agri ministry, claim they misled Parliament

by Editor 1

Sangh affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Tuesday sought an inquiry against agriculture ministryofficials, claiming that a response given by the minister Narendra Singh Tomar in reply to a Parliament question on Glyphosate – a herbicide – earlier this month was “incorrect” and meant “to hide true facts around this deadly chemical”.
SJM convenor Ashwani Mahajan wrote to Tomar requesting to initiate “an inquiry into this matter and ensure that officials work in public interest and not succumb to private lobbies”.
The Manch, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has long been demanding a nationwide ban on Glyphosate which is also being used by farmers for cultivation of unapproved variety of HTBt (transgenic) cotton.
“It is also important that officials who are feeding incorrect information to you should be identified. We need to figure out at whose behest are they misleading you and thereby the entire Parliament,” said Mahajan in his letter to Tomar.
The Parliament question, referred to by Mahajan, was asked by TMC member Pratima Mondal in Lok Sabha on July 9. She asked whether Glyphosate not only kills weeds, but also causes cancer along with other harmful effects, whether several countries have banned the carcinogenic herbicide, and whether the government intends to ban Glyphosate in India among other queries on the herbicide.
Though the minister in his written response said that the Glyphosate was “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through diet”, Mahajan claimed that the “Glyphosate has indeed been categorised as a Probable Human Carcinogen (Group 2A) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organisation (WHO)”.
Addressing Tomar, Mahajan said, “The response that was drafted by your officials and read out by you is incorrect and is meant to hide true facts around this deadly chemical called Glyphosate.” He also claimed that Indian scientists had also conducted some studies on Glyphosate from public sector institutions like Indian Toxicological Research Centre (ITRC, Lucknow).
“The carcinogenicity study revealed that Glyphosate has tumor promoting activity. The researchers concluded that altogether, these results suggested that Glyphosate has tumor promoting potential in skin carcinogenesis and its mechanism seems to be similar to TPA,” he said.
The minister in his written response referred to review of Glyphosate by the WHO’s Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) and its May, 2016 report and said the JMPR “concluded that Glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet”.
The SJM convenor in his letter, however, cited examples of many countries from across the globe which have already banned use of Glyphosate. He also noted that though Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala in India have issued orders to stop the licensing and sales of Glyphosate in their respective states, the governments there seem to be facing implementation hurdles.
“Moreover, such progressive orders are effective only if the Centre orders for a ban throughout the country,” said Mahajan.

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