Gobind Thukral

IT has taken close to three years for the Akali-BJP government to attempt a solution to the worsening fiscal matters of the state. Its debt burden is over Rs 60,000 crores with annual interest liability adding up Rs 5,000 crore. In fact, salaries, pensions and interest devour 70 per cent of the revenue. It leaves little for planned development. Punjab’s current annual plan of Rs 8,625 crore has a budget component of Rs 4,000 crore may fall short by Rs 2,000 crore. This presents a miserable picture.

There is no way to fill vacancies of teachers and hospital staff including doctors. At top there is a net burden of subsidising power, rations and old age pensions etc of Rs 4,500 crore. And, the two partners were constantly nagging each other over fiscal matters. This led to the formation of the two member committee.

Report of this Committee consisting of deputy chief minister and Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal and Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia has been accepted by the Punjab cabinet without any discussion. But one can spot in this report a clever exercise to halt free power for the farmers and mop up some resources before the state budget.

It is clever by half to decide that instead of free power to farm sector, the government has allowed the Punjab State Electricity Board to charge the farmers at Rs 50 per BPH and the government will reimburse it twice a year. This productivity link bonus to the farmers can be increased, decreased or totally stopped in future. For all intents and purposes there is no free power for the farm sector. In the first case as every Punjabi knows too well the corruption may not allow any future benefit to the farmers.

Punjab shall continue to bear the burden as farmers will pay a fraction of the total power subsidy. Government claims that Rs 621 crore will be collected by way of charging farmers at Rs 50 per BHP biannually, experts put it at Rs 494 crore only . The total agriculture subsidy comes to Rs 2,797 crore and the government shall have to pay the board Rs 2,303 crore. In the tariff order for 2009-10, the Regulatory Commission had calculated the average price of one unit supplied to the agricultural sector at Rs 2.85. When converted it comes to Rs 283 per HP per month.

The argument built around this decision is not that Punjab does not want to free power for farmers, but to save the future of agriculture. The conditions that may come up with World Trade Organisation regime taking roots in India will not allow any direct subsidy, but permit productivity bonus. Same logic goes into the reintroduction of abiana for the canal water supply at the rate of Rs 150 per acre.

Punjab could now seek World Bank loans in this sector. The farmers may get less canal water, but shall have to cough up money. Right now the condition of Punjab canals is pitiable as is the case with the power supply. PSEB may escape the fiscal collapse that stared it in the face but how about the farmers who suffer long power cuts. Farmers are not so silly to miss the point that free power is a thing of the past. The Akali stalwart, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal knows too well the political cost. But the fiscal crisis left little choice for him. These are the wages of the past sins. How about the sluggish and corrupt governance in Punjab, will these as ‘laudable’ measures make it functional.

The government has not accepted to increase the retirement age of government employees from 58 to 60 years. They could get one year extension minus any pension benefits. There is no saving of the proposed Rs 1500 crore. How would the state help those 35 lakh unemployed youth who daily protest on the streets? It is increasing the strength of the police by 1,600 to meet such challenges.

All other subsidies, including atta-dal, shagun, old-age pension and welfare schemes for women Dalits and economically weaker sections, will continue. There is not a word about improving the delivery system. Newspapers every day unmask the corrupt delivery system and how powerful are cornering the benefits. There is also no word about the large scale tax evasion in which the ruling party workers are involved. Recent cases detected in Mandi Gobindgarh suggest siphoning of crores of rupees through bogus firms. All these welfare schemes are deeply mired in corruption.

The recommendation for upward revision of VAT, bus fares and collectorate rates has been accepted. There are new taxes on property, institutions, DTH service, and electricity duty on power generation for captive consumption besides surcharge on VAT. How would this generate additional Rs 4,000 crore per annum remains unexplained. Bus fares are up by 13 per cent to benefit the private passenger transporters who now control over 60 per cent of the business. DTH services users will pay Rs 10 per month per connection. Cell towers will require one-time regularisation fee of Rs one lakh and annual payment of Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 depending upon the size of the city and its location.

In all fairness, these measures should have been left to the assembly. This backdoor exercise will seriously undermine whatever is left of the democratic functioning of the Punjab assembly.

As per recommendation of the Committee the government has exempted from payment of stamp duty on transfer of commercial or industrial property to legal heirs, reducing duty on sale deeds in favour of women by 1 per cent to 3 per cent, delaying implementation of revised power tariff till April 1 this year. There is reduction of tax on private vehicles used for passenger transport. But property tax and institution tax on schools and residential buildings outside municipal limits stand exempted. The building plans get an extended life of five years. There is also a promise to review the external development and land use charges. But all this is in the realm of future.

Punjab has passed Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in 2003. It adorns the statute book. It has done little to check overstaffing in government department and to improve efficiency in the tax collection. Its own appointed Reforms Commission believes that the government expenditure can play a critical role in supporting the social and economic life of the poor and the marginalised, even in a relatively developed state like Punjab. There is not even lips sympathy for these sections.

What exactly is at the root of this fiscal crisis? State after state is falling short of finances to fund the ambitious or even moderate development plans. The chief ministers have to beeline to the national capital with a begging bowl for funds. Even the plethora of centrally sponsored schemes, roughly over 200 do not spur development activity. The centre state fiscal relations are skewed with more elastic resources like income tax, excise duties, custom and capital taxes with the centre and inelastic sources like sales tax, land revenue, excise duty on liquor etc with the states. Major development burden like education, electricity, other physical and social infra structure. Now even the development of airports and railways lines and station has partly falls on the shoulders of the states. States’ autonomy in fiscal matters is under serious threat.

Are we not aware of the importance of agriculture besides ensuring food sovereignty and feeding millions, it also takes care of 60 per cent of the population that is dependent upon the farm sector? Is it not a fact that since 1991 when ‘reforms’ began, it has been relegated to the backward with just 2.5 per cent of the GDP being spent. No big irrigation projects. And, in Panjab even the vast network of the canal system, 150 years old has not been properly maintained, leading to water loss of over 30 per cent. No doubt the yearly growth rate is falling short of the expectations. How could we have the second green revolution about which our economist prime minister has been talking passionately?

There is something inherently wrong with the path of development and economic model that has created a small class of super rich and the vast majority of poor. How would we explain that some weeks back farmers in Punjab and Haryana were forced to sell their basmati paddy between Rs 1500- 2200 per quintal against Rs 2300 last year? Millers are making a fast buck by exporting it at over twice of this cost. Why are terms of trade still loaded against the growers of food? Why over centralisation in fiscal matters going unchecked?

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Bt brinjal: India's first poisonous food crop

Davinder Sharma

I AM not the least surprised. Knowing that the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is merely a rubber stamp for the biotech industry, the environmental approval to India 's first genetically modified food crop -- Bt brinjal -- is no surprise. You couldn't have expected anything better from a bunch of stupid bureaucrats and scientists/officials masquerading as regulators. I am sure Michael Moore, if he had followed the ways of GEAC, would have already penned down a sequel to his The Stupid White Men.

India 's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh therefore has a monumental task on his hands. He has to appreciate the role of the GEAC (which falls under his ministry) even knowing they have done a shoddy job, and at the same time seek the help of the public at large before taking the final decision pertaining to the commercial release of India's first poisonous food crop. Not a simple task, and I know the tight-rope walking Jairam Ramesh will have to do in the days to come.

His task becomes more difficult when one learns that within days of the GEAC giving its nod, the seed company seeking the approval -- Mahyco -- had already made a presentation to the Prime Minister Office. And let us not forget, Jairam Ramesh's senior colleague and the sugar baron, the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is already known to have thrown his weight (and we all know how heavy he is ) behind GM crops.

In fact, I sympathise with the chairman of the Expert Committee-II (called EC-II), Dr Arjula R Reddy, who is also the vice-chancellor of the Yogi Yemana University in Hyderabad , to have worked under such difficult conditions. If I were in his place I would have tendered my resignation rather than stamp a report which is clearly the handiwork of USAID and Mahyco. Knowing the incompetence of the members of the EC-II (and I tried to talk to several of their colleagues before saying this) I doubt if they could ever write such a clean copy. Ask them to write two pages, and you will get to known what I mean.

About USAID, the little said the better. I have always referred to it as: US Artificial Insemination Department. And if you have ever been to Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh city , you will understand what I mean.

Nevertheless, coming back to the report of the EC-II, it is a completesham. There is no other word to describe it. I wonder how could the so-called scientists on the panel be so stupid. I can understand the vested interest of the Cornell University scientists, but how come our own breed of scientists be so idiotic? Isn't it a reflection on the kind of people who dominate the corridors of scientific research in the country? This of course holds true for the advisors in the Department of Biotechnology, but I always thought that at least some scientists working in the ICAR and ICMR system would still be engaged in good science. Perhaps that category of scientists has already been marginalised.

This itself is a dangerous trend, too threatening for the future generations. It wouldn't therefore be unfair to say that Indian science is literally in a pit. Only Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh Sauchalaya can pull it out.

Now let us look at some of the conclusions arrived at by the EC-II. On page 2 of the report entitled: Report of the Expert Committee (EC-II) on Bt brinjal EE-1 developed by: M/S Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company Ltd. (Mahyco), Mumbai; University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad; and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore (this report is available on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Forests), it states the following:

"Based on the recommendations of the EC-1, the GEAC in its 79th meeting held on Aug 8, 2007, permitted the conduct of large scale trials (LST) of By brinjal for two season under the direct supervision of Director, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi to conduct some additional biosafety related studies by M/S Mahyco. the field trials were subjected to compliance of the following conditions:

1. Maintaining an isolation distance of 300 metres.
2. Submission of validated event specific test protocol at limit of detection (LOD) of at least 0.01 per cent to detect and confirm there has been no contamination.
3. Designated a lead scientist who would be responsible for all aspects of the trials including regulatory requirements."

This is what is called as clear manipulation of the scientific norms. You first lay out conditions that are suitable for you to arrive at the conclusion you are aiming at, and then you make the recommendation based on the flawed parameters laid out. In the research trials at IIVR, the isolation distance between crop fields is kept at 300 metres (because you don't want the contamination to exceed the LOD of 0.01 per cent). Mahyco therefore got the result it was looking for.

But please tell me where in the country can you conform that Bt brinjal is grown with an isolation distance of 300 metres? Shouldn't the IIVR have known this? If not (and we all know that maintaining an isolation distance of 300 metres at the farm level is practically impossible) than the entire scientific experiment began on a faulty premise. The correct experiment should have been to measure the gene flow on adjoining crop fields of brinjal. That would have given us the correct picture. The experiment therefore was designed wrongly to yield the right results.

This is not the only flaw. I can point a number of glaring flaws in the way the experiments were conducted. Only stupid scientists could have endorsed these results.

Now move to the annextures. From page 66 onwards, the EC-II has responded to the issues raised by NGOs, National and International Groups on Bt brinjal biosafety studies. This is a very interesting section, and all you can say is how ashamed you are if this is the scholarship of so called distinguished scientists/officials on the panel. Take the response to the studies conducted by Prof G Seralini, University of Cannes , France . The response of the EC-II generally is:The EC-II is of the view that no additional information regarding toxicity and allergenicity needs to be generated.

Again it uses the same stupid arguement: Cry1AC protein has a history of safe use for human and animal consumption as GM crops such as Bt maize and Bt potato containing Cry proteins including Cry1AC protein have been consumed by millions of people without any adverse effects. [Each of the responses is simply a cover up. I will take that up subsequently]

I thought the EC-II was a research panel. Instead it has produced the relevant literature to justify its position while ignoring a plethora of scientific research that questions the claims. In any case, the EC-II should have conducted more research to address the issues and concerns raised rather than simply brushing them aside. Let us not forget, history is replete with examples where what was approved assafe by scientists had eventually turned out to be killer. The Orange Gas used by Monsanto in the Vietnam war is a class example. Even now, thousands of people are dying from the residual impact of the gas, which was once considered to be safe. DDT is another example.

Coming to food, we have numerous such examples. Trans fatty acids were once considered to be safe and of course essential for the processing industry. Today, several US States have banned the use of transfats. In fact, food has now become the biggest killer in the United States . More than 400,000 people die from food related ailments, including obesity, every year in the US alone.

Further, I want to ask the chairman of the EC-II a simple question. If I eat Bt brinjal, which you consider as absolutely safe, and I fall ill, is there any way I (or my doctor) can find out whether it was from the alien gene in the brinjal I ate? Do you have any medical assay anywhere in the world which can even pinpoint an ailment or a disease to an alien gene in the GM foods? What will happen Dr Reddy if your wife or children get seriously ill from eating Bt brinjal and your hospital treatment is unable to detect the real cause?

The answer is simple. It is because you allowed premature approvals for poisonous GM crops and foods, without asking the companies to first hold human clinical trials. My sympathy for you surely disappears. Scientists like you should be held responsible, and I think the time has come to make provisions for stringent possible punishment for the approval committees (inlcuding GEAC) if anything goes wrong. Scientists cannot be allowed to play with human lives, animals and the environment.

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French Court finds Monsanto guilty of lying about Its roundup herbicide

FRANCE'S highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean." Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide.

French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union.

In the latest ruling, France's Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics, including ruthless legal battles against small farmers, is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

Sources: BBC October 15, 2009, Vanity Fair May 2008

Vanity Fair June 19, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Monsanto is a very dark cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety in the United States.

This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including:

Leading the world into a new age of potentially hazardous genetic modification of seeds.

Patenting not only their own GMO seeds, but also a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time -- without a vote of the people or Congress.

Not allowing farmers to save their seeds to replant the next year -- a practice that has been done for generations. Instead, they aggressively seek out and sue farmers they suspect of doing so.

Suing farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of Monsanto’s GE pollen or seed onto their land for patent infringement!

Producing two of the most toxic substances ever known -- polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange).

Now France's highest court has confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its Roundup herbicide as "biodegradable" and said it "left the soil clean" -- claims that could not be further from the truth.

The Reality about Roundup

Monsanto long used the slogans, “It's Safer than Mowing," "Biodegradable," and “Environmentally Friendly" to describe Roundup -- until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers in California. Additionally:

The surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.

Glyphosate is suspected of causing genetic damage.

Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance.

Laboratory studies have identified adverse effects of glyphosate-containing products in all standard categories of toxicological testing.

In one animal study, rats given 1,000 mg/kg of glyphosate resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 57 percent of fetuses!

This is very concerning because millions of pounds of Roundup are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Roundup works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is necessary for plants to grow.

Without it, plants are unable to produce essential proteins so they slowly yellow and die.

Monsanto developed a cash cow when they created not only Roundup, but also their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” crops.

Roundup Ready soybean, cotton and corn crops are the world’s largest group of genetically modified crops. In fact, the GM Roundup Ready gene is part of more than 75 percent of soybeans, 65 percent of cotton and 10 percent of corn grown in the United States.

This particular variety of GM crops became so popular because it allows farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide directly onto their fields without harming the crops. Ordinarily, if you were to spray Roundup, or any other glyphosate-based herbicide, onto a plant, it would die.

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, however, produce an enzyme that has the same function as EPSP synthase, but is not affected by Roundup.

As you might imagine, the use of Roundup herbicide has increased dramatically since the GM Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and serious problems have been reported ever since.
Roundup Residues are Toxic.

It’s widely known that GM Roundup Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain Roundup residues. A study published earlier this year even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health.

The study found that residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and death, even at very low levels. The authors of the study said their research "... points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny."

Even when researchers tested formulations of Roundup that were highly diluted (up to 100,000 times or more) on human cells, the cells died within 24 hours.

They also found damage to cell membranes and DNA, along with an inhibition of cell respiration.

Further, the researchers discovered that the mixture of components used as Roundup adjuvants actually amplified the action of the glyphosate, making at least one of its metabolites even more toxic. The researchers wrote:

“This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from Roundup formulation-treated crops.”

With findings like these, you can see just how outrageous Monsanto’s claims really were. Roundup is not “biodegradable,” safe or in any way good for people or the environment.

Not by a long shot.

Monsanto’s Sordid Past

It does not come as a surprise that Monsanto lied about Roundup, given their extremely under-handed track record. There is easily enough “dirt” on Monsanto to fill an entire book.

Perhaps their biggest assault to your food supply is what’s known as terminator technology. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.

The implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply are disastrous: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.

If allowed to continue, every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!

Monsanto -- the convicted liar’s club -- has also worked its way into varying high-level positions in the U.S. government, ironically in positions that are meant to protect your food safety!

The New Senior Advisor for the FDA is a Former Monsanto VP!

Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is the new senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Who is Michael Taylor? He is the person who “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods. Smith continues:

“If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.”

The FDA policy being referred to is the 1992 GMO policy, which stated:

"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods [genetic engineering] differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."

In reality, there was major concern among FDA scientists that GM foods were in fact different than natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems.

Along with being a key player in the initial pushing of GM foods onto Americans’ plates (without any required safety studies), Taylor also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST).

This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:

“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”

Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free.
Unfortunately, the connections do not end there. You can find out more about all of Monsanto’s key players who are now part of the Obama administration here.

You Can Fight Back Against Monsanto

By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known. This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.

Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233 million in October 2009, largely due to a drop in sales of its Roundup brand -- so I am confident that many are wising up to the underhanded dealings of this evil company.

If you want to help keep Monsanto from expanding their stronghold on the world’s food supply, please also continue to stay informed.

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Arsenic ground water threatens life

THE Delhi based Agrochemicals Policy Group (APG) has appealed to the Central Ministry of Health and concerned departments of the State Government of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to evolve a joint strategy to deal with the harmful impact on human health caused by groundwater contamination.

Conclusions of a 36-month study published by senior professors of the Department of Soils (Punjab Agricultural University – Ludhiana) have found the presence of arsenic in drinking water to be the major cause of cancer mortality. Careful analysis of 168 groundwater samples drawn from various parts of North India, found a dangerous proportion of Arsenic deposits in ground water caused by minerals dissolving from weathered rocks and soils.

Dr. Jitendra Kumar – The Society of Pesticide Science India (referring to the report by Dr. H. S. Hundal during a presentation in a seminar held at Punjab Agricultural University) said, “Symptoms of arsenic toxicity develop over 6-24 months causing blackening and thickening of skin, occurrence of white and black spots on different parts of the body and skin cancer, amongst other health complications. Thus putting the blame for increase in the number of cancer cases squarely on the high pesticide residues by green-blind NGO’s have been proved wrong.

A report published by the Chandigarh based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI-MER) blamed rich diet, alcohol and tobacco consumption for the high incidence of cancer in the region. Punjab cancer patients are choosing a well-equipped Charitable Cancer Hospital in Bikaner over similar facilities available in Ludhiana and Chandigarh on account of affordable treatment, medicine and therapy charges being offered there. Accommodation and food for patients and those accompanying them is also heavily subsidized.

Devoid of scientific merit and logic, the allegation about cancer on account of pesticide residue, seemed more aimed at garnering cheap publicity for their outfits and enhance donations and resource mobilization” alleged Rajen Sundaresan – General Manager – Communications, Agrochemicals Policy Group (APG), a representative body of over 200 crop protection chemical manufacturers of Indian Agrochemical Industry. The APG has offered unconditional participation to the Government agencies for control of ground water contamination.

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