Modified brinjal gets go-ahead

The High Court yesterday cleared the way for the government to release a genetically modified (GM) crop, Bt Brinjal, in Bangladesh.The court rejected two separate writ petitions that challenged the legality of a government move to release the crop for the first time in the country.A division bench of the HC rejected the petitions, considering that those were not placed before it with adequate information.Farida Akhter, organiser of Naya Krishi Andolon, a rights body, and Sakiul Millat Morshed, executive director of Shishuk, an NGO, filed the writ petitions 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 Momtajuddin Fakir opposed the writ petitions, arguing that Bt Brinjal is not harmful, but is a high-yielding crop that does not need insecticides.Lawyers from both the prosecution and the defence told The Daily Star that the HC order means there is no legal bar to releasing the crop.Advocate Shahidul Islam, lawyer for Sakiul Millat, said he would move the same petition before another HC bench.On July 15, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) applied to the National Technical Committee for Crop Biotechnology (NTCCB), seeking commercial release of Bt Brinjal, and the NTCCB referred it to its 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 BARI had earlier said.The committee at a meeting 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.