The meeting of Genetic Engineering & Appraisal Committee (GEAC) under Environment Ministry held on Friday to discuss on the issue of commercial cultivation of GM mustard in the country did not arrive at any decision.
Ministry has not yet made any decision on whether to allow commercial cultivation of what could be its first genetically modified food crop, mustard, said Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar shortly after the meeting. “The process is on,” said Javadekar. The meeting is the third of its kind to evaluate field trial data on GM mustard.
Meanwhile, activists and farmers staged dharna outside the Ministry under the banner ‘Sarson Satyagrah’, also submitted a petition to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar asking the
Government not to go ahead with its plan to commercialise GM Mustard.
The Environment Ministry has received a proposal for commercial cultivation of a GM hybrid variety of the mustard plant developed by the university’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP).