Barely days after a personal intervention by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which led to Ramesh asking the Genetic Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) to immediately withdraw permission for Bt maize field trials, the Bihar chief minister received a call from the agriculture minister asking him to allow field trials for the genetically modified crop.
Kumar told the Bihar legislative council that the Union agriculture minister argued for allowing field trials on the grounds that it would help scientists. Kumar spoke about Pawar's plea while intervening in a debate piloted by BJP leader Sanjay Jha in the upper house. The Union environment minister has been arguing that biotech regulation , particularly for food crops, cannot be seen as a purely scientific enterprise. Ramesh, like the Bihar chief minister, is of the view that when it comes to Bt food crops, "there are political considerations that will come into play and I use that term in its best people-oriented sense." Read the full report here.
Source: ET Bureau, Economic Times, New Delhi.
