Maharashtra: Criminal case against farmers for planting GM seeds
Akola: In a first in Maharashtra, at least 12 farmers from Akola district have been booked for allegedly sowing banned herbicide-tolerant Bt (HTBT) cotton seeds, police said Wednesday.
The farmers had allegedly planted the seeds in their farms in Adgaon and Akoli Jahangir villages as part of a protest organised by Shetkari Sanghatna against the Union government's ban on the use of genetically modified Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) cotton and brinjal seeds.
On June 10, several hundred farmers had sowed the GM cotton and brinjal seeds in the east Maharashtra district.
The Sanghatana has been opposing the ban on GM crops claiming that they gave higher yields at lower costs and brought benefits to cultivators.
Two FIRs were registered at Hiwarkhed and Akot police stations on the complaints lodged by the Agriculture department, a Hiwarkhed police station officer said Wednesday.
Among those booked by police included Sanghatna spokesperson Lalit Bahale.
"The farmers have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Environment Protection Act and the Seeds Act," said Hiwarkhed police station inspector Somnath Pawar.
The use of GM crops in the country is tightly regulated as per "Rules for the Manufacture/Use/Import/Export and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms, Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells, 1989" under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
As per the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,the evaluation of each application of GM crop is done on a case-to-case basis after a thorough examination of health, environment, food and feed safety assessment studies.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
