The Hindu 12.07.2009

Concern over poor waste management

Correspondent

CUTTACK: Poor disposal of biomedical wastes (BMW) generated from the hospitals and nursing homes has again come up for hearing in the Orissa High Court and this time the HC after taking strong exceptions to the issue has issued show-cause notices to all government and private teaching hospitals of the State.

Adjudicating over a PIL filed by a Cuttack-based voluntary organisation -- Maitree Sansad, and after going through the report of the state pollution control board (SPCB), a bench of the HC comprising Justice Laxmikanta Mohapatra and Justice Indrajit Mohanty on Friday expressed grave concern over the unscientific manner in which the biomedical wastes generated from the hospitals are disposed.

“The government is not adhering to the norms and methods of disposal of these wastes as enshrined in the provisions of the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules-1998 thereby posing a threat not only to the patients of the hospitals but to all others too”, alleges the petitioner advocate Ajay Mohanty, who is also the secretary of the voluntary organisation.

Hearing the petition, the HC had directed the SPCB to conduct an enquiry and submit a report stating what steps have been taken in this regard by the three government medical college hospitals in State including the Capital Hospital and nursing homes of twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The SPCB in its report has mentioned that the provisions of the statutory rules are violated by the teaching hospitals as well as private hospitals of the twin city. “No effective measure had been taken by the hospitals to prevent pollution and infectious diseases from spreading due to poor disposal of biomedical wastes. Shocked over such a report, the bench issued show-cause notices to all hospitals and has fixed August 21 for next hearing.