Bill to set up biotech regulator introduced in LS

A bill to establish a statutory independent regulator for biotech sector covering research, transport, import, manufacture and use of organisms and products of modern biotechnology was introduced in the Lok Sabha today.
The Bill, which has been on the drafting board for years and had run into stiff opposition from green activists, was introduced by Minister for Science and Technology S Jaipal Reddy, who rejected objections raised by CPI(M) member Basudeb Acharia.
As Reddy sought the leave of the Lok Sabha to introduce the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, Acharia objected to it contending that Department of Biotechnology, the promoter of the science, cannot be its regulator.

"Recently, the Standing Committee on Agriculture in its Report on Genetically Modified Foods and Crops, recommended that there should be a non-incumbency Regulatory Authority," said Acharia, who is the chairman of the Standing Committee.
Reddy termed Acharia's objections as untenable and said that the Bill was being done within the legislative competence of Parliament.
The proposed regulator would be a nodal agency of the government to ensure comprehensive safety assessment of organisms and products of modern biotechnology.
The commercialisation of biotechnology products in agriculture and healthcare would be subject to all other laws for the time being in force, the Bill stated.

The biotech regulator would regulate trials preceding the clinical trials in the health sector and the present mechanism for regulating clinical trials would continue, it said.