NEW DELHI: The environment ministry on Saturday refuted the allegations about violations of statutory regulations during appraisal and approval of GM mustard. It said that the conditional release of Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11(DMH-11) was granted only after stakeholder consultations as per the guidelines and rules.
The Coalition of GM-free India, a network of non-governmental organisations and individuals opposing genetically modified crops, on Friday said no independent health expert had participated in GM mustard appraisal.
In a rebuttal issued on Saturday, the ministry said, “The conditional environmental release of GM mustard has been granted after stakeholder consultations as prescribed in the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) guidance documents (Guidelines for the ERA of Genetically Engineered Plants, Risk Analysis Framework, Stakeholder’s guide) of 2016. The conditional approval for environmental release is subject to clearance from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.”
The activists cited 15 instances, where the regulatory regime while permitting the ‘environmental release’ of GM mustard was allegedly compromised by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).
Responding to the allegation that the Directorate of Rapeseed Mustard Research received the seeds on October 22 last year before the formal approval was given on October 25, the ministry said the environmental release of GM mustard was recommended in the GEAC meeting held on October 18.
The ministry said a letter received from Prof Deepak Pental, who is behind GM mustard, in May 2022, indicated that the technology has been used for over 20 years in Canada, Australia and US.
“Comments were sought from Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Agriculture Research & Education on the letter from Prof Pental. Both DBT and DARE opined that GEAC recommendation regarding the environmental release of GM mustard may be reconsidered,” it said.
In October, the ministry allowed the environmental release of DMH-11 developed by Delhi University for seed testing before its commercial release. At present, cultivation of only GM Cotton is allowed in India. The coalition approached the SC to stop the trials. The case will be heard on Tuesday.