Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Monday,
August 15, 2016.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has issued show-cause notices to two Union
environment ministry officials for not disclosing information on a genetically
modified mustard crop in violation of an earlier order from the CIC.
Information
Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu, asked the officers, P Saranya and Madhumita
Biswas, to show cause why the maximum penalty should not be imposed against
each of them for non-compliance with the Right to Information Act.
“The
commission has every authority to enforce the RTI of appellant (an anti-GM
activist), which was violated by these two officers, by not complying with the
orders of CIC, and also breached their own undertaking to give the information
within two months,” says the August 12 CIC order.
This comes
four months after CIC asked the environment ministry to release the biosafety
data on the trials of GM mustard to the public to ensure that confidential
information is in the public domain.
The
indigenous GM crop, developed by scientists at Delhi University, is under the
government's consideration for commercial release. However, the activists are
up in arms against the genetically engineered mustard.
The
information commissioner said Saranya and Biswas sought extension without
putting forward any substantive reason and failed to offer any specific time
for furnishing the same.
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