The forest, ecology and environment department has received more than 200 responses to the proposal to conduct field trials for Bt cotton and maize.
On October 15, the department had issued a public notice stating that Rallis India Limited, a Bengaluru-based company, had sought no objection certificate (NoC) to conduct 'confined field trials' and sought responses from the public for the proposal by October 31.
Activists had vehemently opposed the move, stating that the field trials were completely unsafe as the state lacks a monitoring system to ensure that the genetically modified (GM) seeds do not get leaked to mainstream agriculture.
Sources in the department said they had received about 200 responses to the public notice.
"We suspect the responses are mostly in opposition to the field trials. We are in the process of compiling them. As per procedure, a committee headed by the chief secretary will decide on issuing NoC after going through the responses," the sources said.
They said the confined trials were proposed to be conducted in the two universities of agricultural sciences in Dharwad and Raichur. "The decision will be left to the committee," the sources added.
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