The Deccan Herald  21.09.2010

Dumping hospital wastes on roads flayed

Mandya :Sep 20, DHNS:

Though City Municipal Council authorities are planning to impose a ban on the use of plastics keeping in view protection of environment, owners of a few private nursing homes are dumping medical wastes on roads.

They not only throw plastic materials but also several medical wastes such as syringes, used bandages, expired tablets which are threat to public health.

The CMC has planned to impose a ban the use of plastic materials below 20 micron level.The newly elected president and vice-president should visit the spots and take necessary action.

Meanwhile, the citizens have demanded the CMC to hold awareness programme about the ill effects of use of plastic materials on the environment.
The dumped wastes are seen on Vivekananda road. It is quite strange that the department concerned has not bothered to take action against owners of such private nursing homes.
Shivaprakash Babu, a councillor told Deccan Herald that he has brought this to the notice of the commissioner, president and vice-president of the CMC. And now it is for the council to come out with a permanent solution.

Mixed response  
However, there is a mixed response given from the elected representatives on banning the use of plastic.
If Standing Committee chairman Gowrish and vice- president M J Chikkanna welcomed the move,  CMC president Arunkumar is not in its favour.

KANPUR: The door-to-door collection of garbage by Kanpur Nagar Nigam (KNN) has started in the certain areas from September 1. However, the civic body has been facing difficulties to implement the scheme. Shortage of sanitary workers and lack of civic sense among the masses as cited as the hurdles for the survival of the project in its initial stages.

The KNN is not charging user charges from the locals as per the prescribed norms. Although Rs 30 to Rs 50 has to be charged by the department from each household. But due to lack of awareness among masses, the KNN has been charging no money as locals are finding it difficult to come to terms with the new method. Notably, the project that aims to cover 90,000 houses in 18 wards of zone 4 by September 30 has covered only 35,000 houses till date.

"The people are not aware about door-to-door collection of garbage. They are hesitant to pay user charges. Generally, they stick to one sweeper who not only collects the garbage from the house but clean the toilets on a regular note. Therefore, it is difficult for the sanitary workers to explain the objective of the garbage collection that aims to keep the city clean," municipal commissioner R Vikram Singh said.

Notedly, the SWM project involves collection, primary storage, secondary collection, transfer, transportation, processing by composting and disposal of waste into the landfill in accordance with MSW 2000 rules. Presently, the nagar nigam is able to collect 33 metric tonnes of garbage from areas like Sesamau, MacRobert Ganj, Ashok Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Sutar Khana, Prem Nagar, Beacanganj, Dalelpurwa and Colonel Ganj.

The nagar nigam has been facing crunch of sanitary workers. The entire zone has to be cleaned jointly by the KNN sanitary workers and those from the private company. Presently, 200 workers and 22 supervisors have been appointed to clean different wards. On a regular note, the sweepers have to cover 300 to 400 houses. "We are facing difficulties to implement the project due to scarcity of workers. Every month around 10-15 nagar nigam sweepers are taking retirement from the job. It is a difficult task to fill the vacant post. Therefore, we have asked the private company carrying out the solid waste management scheme in the city to increase the number of its workers," the municipal commissioner added.

Chief operating officer KSV Nair said: "Initially, the project aims to sort the problems while implementing the it on a practical ground. According to the survey, there are 90,000 houses in zone 4, generating around 150 tonnes of garbage per day. The workers are being trained since the past one month to deal with the locals and to motivate them to be a part of this project. A control room will also start within a month where people can complain if they witness irregularities."