Conflict of interest in appointment of GEAC members: Par panel

There is a conflict of interest in the appointment of some members of the country's biotech regulator with two of the top three positions being held by bureaucrats of the environment ministry, a parliamentary panel has said while asserting that an expert should head the body.
The department-related parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forest made its recommendations in its 301st report on 'GM crop and its impact on environment'.
The panel said that it was informed that biotech regulator Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) was first constituted on May 28, 1990 and it was last re- constituted on March 11, 2013 for a period of three years.

Subsequently, with the approval of the competent authority, the tenure of the committee has been extended till re-constitution of the new committee.
The committee expressed its concerns about the "ad hocism" in the constitution of the committee and also about the criteria adopted by the environment ministry for selection of the members of GEAC, their credentials, etc.
"The committee also noted that two of the top three positions of GEAC are held by the bureaucrats of the (environment) ministry. The committee is also of the view that there is a conflict of interest in the appointment of some of the members of GEAC," it said.

The panel said that "it would be in fitness of things if GEAC is headed by an expert from the field of biotechnology given the understanding of scientific data and analysis of research and its implication before coming to a conclusion in the matter."

Anti-GM groups had earlier alleged that the sub-committee constituted by GEAC to examine the biosafety data on GM mustard did not have any health expert and three of its members have conflict of interest.
The committee has said that no genetically modified (GM) crop should be introduced in India unless the biosafety and socio-economic desirability is evaluated in a "transparent" process and an accountability regime is put in place.

The above remarks come after GEAC recently recommended the commercial use of genetically modified mustard in a submission to the environment ministry.