Cancel Bt brinjal, AP tells Centre

The state government on Saturday requested the Centre to cancel the permission given by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) for commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal.

The agriculture minister, Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, said that the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, had written to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Union minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, raising this demand. “We have requested that permission should be given only after a study of the objections that have come up from different quarters,” Mr Reddy said.

He said AP had earlier appointed a committee comprising the principal secretary of agriculture, the agriculture products commissioner, and vice-chancellors of agriculture and horticulture universities to study the issue.

“We can’t take up cultivation of a food variety based on research by private companies,” he said. “The state brought this issue to the notice of the Union environment ministry.”