At a national meet here, the Coalition wanted the government to disallow these trials as was done by States like Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Chhattisgarh.
Cautioning against any move to revoke the requirement of State’s no objection certificate (NOC) for any GM crop field trials, the Coalition reminded the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) that agriculture was a State subject as per the Constitution and that the Indian regulatory system should uphold this authority.
The GEAC had recently formalised the processes for its field trial authorisation procedures that now require GM crop developers to obtain an NOC from State governments before permission is given by it. However, the industry is pressurising the GEAC to revoke this clause. “There is absolutely no basis on which the industry bodies like Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE) should be resisting this new norm. Agriculture is a State subject. What’s more, many State governments have been asking right from 1998 for a say in GM crop-related decision-making in the country. The former Environment Minister has been right in conceding this,” said Kavitha Kuruganti of the Coalition.
Leaders of the Coalition who participated in the meeting included Pankaj Bhushan of GM-Free Bihar, Saroj Mohanty of Paschim Orissa Krushak Sanghatan, Krishna Prasad of GM-Free Karnataka, and K.Sajaya from Caring Citizens Collective.