Gujarat appeals Centre not to permit Bt Brinjal

Gujarat Government has appealed to the Centre to defer its move to give approval for commercial farming of Bt Brinjal in the country.

"The Centre should take into account the views of all stakeholders and conduct a long-term research on Bt Brinjal's bio-safety and its consequent contributions to food security and farmers' well being," Gujarat Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani told PTI over phone today.

The agriculture minister has convened an emergency meeting of Gujarat's four agricultural universities in Gandhinagar on February 10 to discuss about the issue with experts.

"Why should the Union Environment Minister come under pressure from multi national companies (MNCs) and ignore the opinions of huge population of the country ?" he asked.

The minister wondered the reason for giving up traditional farming of brinjal even as the genetically modified crop's safety was yet to be evaluated.

BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are not in favour of accepting the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal, he added.