NEW DELHI: Even as the fate of Bt brinjal hangs in balance, the parliamentary standing committee attached to the agriculture ministry has started examining the pros and cons of introducing genetically-modified food in India, with a panel of experts coming out in favour of setting up a regulatory mechanism to monitor their implications.

At the first meeting of the parliamentary panel on the sensitive subject here this afternoon, three experts, including Delhi University vice-chancellor Prof Deepak Paintal, who was a member of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which gave its approval to the introduction of Bt brinjal in October 2009, made their respective presentations.

Besides Prof Paintal, the other two experts who outlined their views on the subject before the panel, which is headed by CPM parliamentary party leader Basudeb Acharia, were Dr S Nagarajan, chairman of the National Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Authority, and Dr V S Chauhan, who leads the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. While Dr Nagarajan is considered to be an expert on wheat-breeding, Dr Chauhan has done an extensive study on the role of biotechnology in medicines.

While stressing on the need to have a regulatory mechanism, the experts welcomed the new law seeking the setting up of the National Biotechnology Authority.

The bill was drafted by the department of biotechnology in 2008, but has failed to see the light of the day till now. The experts came out strongly in favour of enacting the law without any delay.

With the controversy surrounding the introduction of Bt brinjal still fresh in their minds, members of the standing committee sought to raise questions on the fall-out of genetically-modified food on the lives of people and the environment in which they lived.

Former Union minister Hukumdeo Narain Yadav and senior Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi sought to know from the experts the likely impact of genetically-engineered food on the health of people, on environment and soil fertility, on the nutritional value of food, on the interests of farmers and on the health of the economy in general.
The committee, in the coming days, is likely to seek the opinion of other experts, stakeholders and parties involved in the policy-formulation and growth of genetically-modified food before formulating its report on a subject which has already generated a lot of heat across the country.

Its import was brought to the forefront in February this year, when the environment ministry slapped a moratorium on the release of the transgenic brinjal hybrid developed by Mahyco, a subsidiary of global seed giant Monsanto.

The moratorium would, according to environment minister Jairam Ramesh last "till such time independent scientific studies establish, to the satisfaction of both the public and professionals, the safety of the product from the point of view of its long-term impact on human health and environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our country".

The minister's decision came in the wake of a month-long exercise of public consultations in seven cities, which were attended by some 8,000 people. They were organised after widespread protests against the GEAC recommendation approving the introduction of Bt brinjal in October 2009.