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Modified brinjal given go-ahead

 The High Court on Monday cleared the way for the government to release the genetically modified (GM) crop – Bt Brinjal- in the country.

The court passed the order after rejecting two separate writ petitions challenging the legality of a government move to release the Bt Brinjal for the first time in the country.

Both the petitions were rejected as those were not placed with adequate information, the court said during its day’s hearing.

Farida Akhter, organiser of Naya Krishi Andolon, a rights body, and Sakiul Millat Morshed, executive director of Shishuk, an NGO, filed the writ petition on July 29 claiming that the modified Brinjal is harmful to public health and environment.

They prayed to the court to issue an order on the government not to produce the crop in the country.

Additional Attorney General Mamtajuddin Fakir opposed the writ petitions saying that the crop is not harmful.

Rather, it is a high yielding crop which does not need insecticide, he added.

Lawyers from both the prosecution and defence told The Daily Star that there is no legal bar for the government to release the Bt Brinjal in the country following the high court order.

On July 15, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) applied to the National Technical Committee for Crop Biotechnology seeking commercial release of Bt Brinjal and the NTCCB referred it to the expert committee for review.

Bt Brinjal is infused with pest-resistant genes that will see a drastic fall in the use of harmful pesticides in the crop, scientists, who developed the variety at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), said earlier.

The committee at a meeting earlier reviewed the reports provided by BARI.

“According to the reports we reviewed, the Bt Gene has been expressed well in our home-grown brinjals and results have been found to be homogeneous,” said Prof Rakha Hari Sarker, a member of the committee.

Source - The Daily Star