NEW DELHI: A day after the environment ministry released a “Safety assessment report of the sub-committee on GM mustard” which concluded that the transgenic crop has cleared all safety tests and is safe for human consumption, a Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) member and noted molecular biologist, Pushpa M Bhargava said the report wasn’t shared or discussed with GEAC members before MoEF released it on their website.“I am a member of GEAC and the norm is to first discuss the findings with GEAC members. That was not done. The GEAC appointed the sub-committee to draft the report so the report should have come to us first. Also, this is not the biosafety study, it is only an assessment of the main study. This information is scanty. I think the ministry is superseding the system,” he told TOI. GEAC is the apex body on GM crops.MoEF states on their website that the assessment published is an abridged version of the entire biosafety data which will be available only at the MoEF office, on appointment, only during work hours. But anti-GM activists who had demanded the entire biosafety data under RTI recently, said the ministry’s actions are in complete violation of the Central Information Commission’s ( CIC ) April 6 order.CIC had said “this public authority is attempting to keep vital information out of public discussion. It amounts to prevention of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression of the appellant, who are interested in discussing the pros and cons of GMO related issues of GM Mustard , which if permitted would cause serious impact to public health,” CIC also show-caused the ministry as to why maximum penalty should not be imposed on officials or not divulging data.Kavitha Kuruganti, a member of the GM free coalition said “They are asking people to take an appointment to go look at the vast information at their office. The ministry held a meeting with civil society organisations on July 18 but never uploaded the minutes or even shared the minutes with us.” Many activists and scientists were even more shocked when they couldn’t print or copy text from the sub-committee’s report that has been uploaded on Monday. “First they don’t share the entire report and now they have made it impossible to print it too,” said another activist.Bhargava who is also SC nominee to GEAC said “the assessment doesn’t tell us on what basis the sub-committee has arrived at their decision that the crop is safe.”A senior official of GEAC denied the allegations. “I don’t know what Mr Bhargava is referring to. Findings of the report were discussed with all members. Mr Bharagava did raise some additional queries,” she said adding that “the entire biosafety information cannot be released because it runs into 4,000 pages. People can come to our office to look at it but they will be not allowed to print or copy from it. As far as printing the abridged version is concerned, we are trying to make it printable.”Several stakeholders including farmers have raised concerns about the process of approval. Rampal Jat, president of Maha Kisan Panchayat had said “BJP’s 2014 election manifesto had promised clearly that GM crops will be brought in only after full scientific evaluation of their impacts on citizens and environment – but that’s not being done.” If cleared, GM mustard will be the first transgenic food crop in India. It’s developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP), Delhi University.