07.06.2007 | permalink
In an intriguing development, three members of a Planning Commission taskforce on genetically modified organisms have dissociated themselves from the report submitted by the study group months after it was released. The report had castigated existing GM regulatory authorities and rules, as TOI had reported earlier. But, in an odd coincidence, the letter, though shot off more than two months after the report was made public, was sent on the same day - April 11, 2007 - when the three members and other taskforce members received an e-mail request from a pro-GM group. The e-mail warned that the report could be used to support a certain argument in an ongoing Supreme Court case where an argument has been made out by a petitioner against GM trials in India.