Experts' panel approves Bt brinjal, final okay now with Jairam

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the Union environment ministry today gave a green signal for genetically modified brinjal (Bt brinjal). Three members dissented.

Such brinjals would soon be on dinner tables in the country if the GEAC view is upheld by the ministry. Minister Jairam Ramesh said he would examine the report before deciding.

“The special committee formed by GEAC to examine concerns about the health safety of Bt brinjal met to give its view on the concerns expressed by various groups and individuals,” went the official statement. “The GEAC said its experts have found these concerns invalid.”

Of the three dissenters, Ramesh Sothi said the vector used in making Bt brinjal was wrong and this alone disqualified the crop. Pushpa Bhargava, another dissenter, alleged: “They told us about this meeting only on Friday evening and did not agree to give more time to include all those who had expressed reservations about the crop to participate. Such transparency would have exposed GEAC and they did not dare to do it.”

Mahyco, one of the companies seeking approval for cultivation of Bt brinjal, said a positive decision would help millions of brinjal farmers who have been suffering from the havoc caused by the Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer (BFSB) disease. Its managing director, Raju Barwale, said: “Insect-resistant Bt brinjal has been in development for nine years and has been tested in full compliance with the guidelines and directives of the regulatory authorities to ensure its safety. It is the most rigorously tested vegetable, with 25 environmental biosafety studies supervised by independent and government agencies. It has the same nutritional value and is compositionally identical to non-Bt brinjal, except for the additional Bt protein which is specific in its action against the BFSB”.

The Coalition for a GM-Free India, which has been campaigning against GM vegetables, said it was a shame that “regulators in this country have put the interests of corporations over the interests of ordinary citizens’’.