Congress Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha and former Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, has written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against the proposal to send the Bill to amend the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, to a select committee of Parliament. Ramesh argued in the letter that the Bill should go to the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
The Bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on Thursday, has aroused wide-ranging and legitimate concerns, said Ramesh, who is also the Chairman of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment, Forests & Climate Change.
He stated in the letter that he and his party has the strongest possible protests against the move of the Government to refer the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, to a Select Committee and not to the Standing Committee.
‘Obvious motivations’
“The subject matter of the Bill and indeed of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which is sought to be amended, belongs fairly and squarely to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and consequently to the Standing Committee related to it. I don’t wish to say more on the motivations of the Government to bypass the Standing Committee concerned and refer the contentious Bill to a Select Committee.
“The motivations are obvious. All I wish to say is that the move is a deliberate insult to the Standing Committee. The fact that I am its chairman does not matter. What is more important is the dignity of the Standing Committee itself,” he said in the letter.
He urged the Speaker not to allow this to happen and refer the Bill to the Standing Committee concerned which is fully conscious of its responsibilities.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said in the statement on Objects and Reasons of the Bill that it seeks to reduce the pressure on wild medicinal plants by encouraging cultivation of medicinal plants.
‘More foreign investments’
He said the Bill aims to encourage Indian system of medicine, facilitate fast-tracking of research, patent application process, transfer of research results while utilising the biological resources available in India without compromising the objectives of the United Nation Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol.
The Bill, according to Yadav, “will bring more foreign investments in the chain of biological resources, including research, patent and commercial utilisation, without compromising the national interest.”
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