Hamara Beej

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Public hearings on Bt Brinjal next month

STAFF WRITER 13:4 HRS IST

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) A series of public hearings will be held from January on the safety of Bt brinjal, the first genetically modified food crop recently cleared for commercial release by the central bio-tech regulator amid strong protests from environmentalists.

The Environment Ministry will call the first public consultation in Kolkata on January 13 while the next hearing will be held in Bhubaneshwar on January 16 and the third in Ahmedabad on January 19.

The fourth public hearing will be held in Hyderabad (January 22), fifth in Bangalore (January 23), sixth in Nagpur (January 27) and seventh in Chandigarh on January 30, a senior environment ministry official said.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will personally attend the meetings to be held with scientists, agriculture experts, farmers' organizations, consumer groups and NGOs, the official said.

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