The much awaited Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill (NBRA Bill) once again could not be introduced in Parliament during the Budget session which concluded on May 22, thanks largely to the lackadaisical attitude of Union minister for science and technology Vilasrao Deshmukh towards the issue, and also due to some technical issues.
According to sources, the NBRA Bill, which was the only Bill in the health and pharma sectors that could find a place in the tentative list for transaction of business for the budget session, could not be introduced due to some technical and procedural issues. But, the Bill could have been introduced in Parliament during the budget session, had the minister taken more interest in the issue, sources said.
The minister is not showing much interest in the long pending issues like the NBRA Bill as he is too busy with several other political issues, sources said and added that the Bill is most likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament for which the government is yet to announce the date.
The introduction of the NBRA Bill during the budget session, which started on March 12, was almost certain as the Bill has been pending for Parliament's final nod for a long time now. It has been hitting the 'Tentative list for transaction of business for Parliament session' continuously for the last more than two years. During the last winter session of Parliament also, the Bill was held back at the eleventh hour due to some technical lacunae which has since been rectified by the department.
The NBRA Bill, drafted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), is being introduced to establish Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India to regulate research, import, transport, use of organism and product produced from modern biotechnology. It seeks to set up the NBRA as an independent, autonomous, statutory agency to safeguard the health and safety of the people and to regulate the safe development and deployment of biotechnology products and processes in the country. Once in place, the Authority will have overriding powers on matters related to the development and deployment of biotechnology products and processes in the country.
The Bill seeks to make NBRA as an independent, autonomous, statutory agency to safeguard the health and safety of the people of India and to protect the environment by identifying risks posed by, or as a result of, modern biotechnology, and managing those risks through regulating the safe development and deployment of biotechnology products and processes.