While the central government is yet to take a call on introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in the country, a civil society group said that the union environment ministry is secretly considering commercial approvals of GM mustard, first genetically engineered food crop, in the country.
The Coalition for GM Free India said that GM mustard it has reportedly completed biosafety assessments and could be brought up in the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), the nodal agency for any environmental releases of GMOs in the country, for commercialization approval. The environment ministry has been considering for approval field trials of GM crops on case to case basis.
The GM mustard ‘DMH 11 (Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11)’ has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, University of Delhi led by former Delhi University Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental with support from DBT (Dept of Biotechnology) and NDDB (National Dairy Development Board). A moratorium was laid on Bt Brinjal in 2010 after countrywide opposition.
Rajesh Krishnan, Convenor of the Coalition said: “Delhi University’s GM mustard is essentially a backdoor entry for herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops into India, in the guise of a public sector GM crop.”
Kavitha Kuruganti, Convenor, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), claimed that the entire biosafety assessment of this GM mustard is shrouded in secrecy with repeated efforts including RTI requests to seek information on the statutory safety assessments having remained unanswered from GEAC, starting from 2006.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Government Considering Approval to GM Mustard
