The 6th edition of Meeting of the Parties, being held in Hyderabad as prelude to the UN conference on Bio-diversity has witnessed elaborate discussions as several countries have expressed concerns over Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) and their management and safety issues.

The Deputy Secretary to the Convention on Bio-diversity, Charles Gbedemah told media this morning that the deliberations over Cartegena Protocol and Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol are progressing successfully. He said, the five-day bio-safety conference which concludes today, will adopt decisions on 18 aspects.

He further said, the implementation of Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redressal was low due to absence of legal frameworks in several member countries.

Mr Charles said, the member countries taking part in the deliberations made proactive efforts to arrive at consensus on several contentious issues.

Our correspondent reports that the deliberations at the biosafety conference have apparently made a step forward towards implementation of the Cartagena-Kuala Lumpur supplementary protocol which the UN expects that it will come into force at least by 2020.

The member-countries used the forum to voice their concerns over Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) and related issues.

The Socio-Economic concerns of the countries and the risk assessment of the LMOs have taken center-stage during the 5-day deliberations as more and more countries showed concern over them.

On the other hand, the civil society organizations have utilized the UN platform to voice their anxieties against the Genetically Modified Crops and urged the Governments to tread cautiously while dealing with offshoots of biotechnology.

Representatives of over 150 countries took part in the five-day deliberations which have just ended.