Nagpur: In the midst of a covid pandemic, a special investigation team (sitting) spread of illegal herbicide tolerant cotton seeds (HT) in the country secretly submitted a report six months ago.
The two members were led by IG specifically for police Krishna Prakash.
Sit was formed in February 2018 and was initially mandated to submit a report after a month of formation.
Previously, it was led by Sanjay Barve, an IPS officer who was the Commissioner of the State Intelligence Department.
He was replaced by Prakash in a week of a sitting formation.
Subhash Nagare, Director of Joint Agriculture for the Division of Amravati, is the member secretary.
Even because it took more than three years to the report was resolved, the agriculture department still knew nothing about findings.
It has been studied that the report has been submitted to the Main Secretary (Agriculture) Eknath Dawale.
There is no further command basically, so far.
Both Daware and Prakash cannot be contacted for comments and SMS seeking their response is also missed.
It has been studied that even when the report has been placed by sitting, a little happens after it walks along the line in the department.
Fill in the report is not yet known in the department.
HT cotton seed problems appear at the same time when cases of pesticide poisoning are reported in the state.
HT seeds are genetic engineering to resistant to glyphosate-based herbicides (killer weeds).
This technology has been developed by the As Monsanto seed giant, which has now been acquired by Bayer.
Monsanto is also one of the main producers of Glyphosate.
If HT seeds are used on a large scale, then it will also increase the demand for glifosat, which is legally available in this country.
For the Indian market, Monsanto-Mahyco has entered the tie-up and the latter has conducted a trial for HT seeds.
In 2016, trials were withdrawn due to problems related to intellectual property rights (IPR).
However, in the meantime, the technology that has not been given a legal seal in this country leaked.
Since then, seeds are easily available on the gray market.
Sitting was formed to investigate how the gray market worked and the network smuggled seeds to Maharashtra.
There is also theory, although it is not proven, that the seeds are stolen during the trial.
Sitting, however, it took a long time to look for extensions after the extension because the report could not be prepared.
In 2019, Shetkari Sanghatana had protested with openly sowing the HT Cotton Seeds who demanded that the technology must be legalized.
In short, HT seeds that are tolerant of Glifosat-based weed killers, the technology developed by Monsanto has not been allowed to be used in India HT Seeds but is easily available through the gray market that should investigate the network