New Delhi, June 29: The government is setting up an independent watchdog for genetically modified (GM) products to replace existing approval mechanisms that have been embroiled in allegations of lack of transparency.

India’s department of biotechnology will midwife the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA), tasked with assessing the safety of GM products before their commercial release, but will have no role in its functioning, officials said.

The authority will regulate GM plants, animals and micro-organisms used in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and GM organisms used in human and veterinary health and industrial and environmental applications.

The agency will be created through a biotechnology regulatory bill expected to be ready for introduction in Parliament by September, an official said.

“We will have no engagement beyond the creation of the authority,” said Maharaj Kishan Bhan, the biotechnology department secretary. In an attempt to ensure autonomy, the head of the NBRA will hold the rank of a secretary (in the central government), he added.

But activists campaigning against GM crops said the creation of an organisation tasked with safety assessment should ideally have been the mandate of the ministry of health or the ministry of environment rather than biotechnology.

The agency will have dedicated teams of scientists and officials who will conduct safety assessments, a task currently done by the Genetic Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC), a body set up by the ministry of environment and forests.

NGOs such as Greenpeace and the New Delhi-based Gene Campaign have long charged the GEAC and the biotechnology department’s own review committee on genetic manipulation of lack of transparency on data of safety trials of GM crops. Activists have also accused both of ignoring irregularities in GM crop field trials.

“And we see nothing in the draft bill for the new authority that suggests that the new agency will be more transparent than the GEAC,” said a Greenpeace activist.

“Every legislation tends to draw its mandate from the ministry that steers it... we fear there will be a pro-biotechnology bias (at the NBRA),” said Kavitha Karuganti, with the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad.