Statutory regulations not violated for nod to GM mustard: Govt

Claims by activists that statutory regulations were bypassed during the appraisal and approval of genetically modified (GM) mustard in India have been trashed by the Union Environment Ministry, which asserted on Saturday that the product was "conditionally cleared" only after stakeholder consultation. 

The rebuttal came a day after the Coalition of GM-Free India, a group of NGOs opposing genetically modified crops, released a report alleging that no (independent) health expert ever participated in GM mustard appraisal.

Seeking to put the record straight, the ministry said: "The Assessment of Food and Environmental Safety (AFES) report prepared by the sub-committee in 2016 with regard to the biosafety dossier of GM mustard was uploaded on the ministry's website for inviting comments by the public for a period of 30 days (from September 5 to October 5, 2016).

"Further, the entire dossier was also made available for review by the public in the ministry's office for the same duration," it 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 (the) environmental release is subject to the clearance from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)."

On the coalition's allegation that the Directorate of Rapeseed Mustard Research (DRMR) had 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 had been recommended in the 147th meeting of the GEAC held on October 18 last year. 

"The letter of approval for (the) environmental release of GM mustard was issued on October 25 after the approval was granted by the central government and the seeds were sent to the ICAR-DRMR on October 29," it said.

The coalition had also claimed that GM mustard did not get tested as a herbicide-tolerant (HT) crop because there were no regulatory guidelines and protocols for HT crops. To this, the ministry said the use of the terminology 'herbicide tolerant' for GM mustard that has been granted environmental release is "not appropriate."

Countering the claim that the GM mustard approval ignored the fact that agriculture was a state subject, the ministry said Biosafety Research Level-I and Biosafety Research Level-II trials of GM mustard were conducted after obtaining the no-objection certificates (NOCs) from state governments.

Reacting to the coalition's claim that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) "kept agreeing" to the requests of "the applicant" for an exemption from tests, the ministry said the applicant was advised to undertake field demonstration studies of GM mustard in 2018 with a view to generating additional data on honey bees and other pollinators.

Meanwhile, the ministry said it got a letter from Prof. Deepak Pental, the man behind GM mustard, in May 2022, indicating that GM technology deployed for the development of mustard had been well tested and used for more than 20 years in Canada, the US and Australia. "References indicated no untoward effect of the technology has been reported with respect to honey bees." 

"Comments were sought from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and (the) Department of Agriculture Research & Education (DARE) on the letter received from Prof. Pental, a former Delhi University VC (Vice Chancellor). Both DBT and DARE opined that (the) GEAC recommendation regarding the environmental release of GM mustard may be reconsidered," the ministry asserted.

The Supreme Court has fixed January 10 as the next date for a hearing on the matter.