The Times of India   10.08.2012

Haryana to set up common bio-medical waste treatment

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Government will set up Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility at four different places of the state for the management and handling of bio medical waste of government and private hospitals of all the districts.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting presided over by Haryana Chief Secretary, PK Chaudhery at Chandigarh on Thursday. Additional Chief Secretary, (environment), PK Gupta, financial commissioner and principal secretary (health), Navraj Sandhu and financial commissioner and principal secretary, (urban local bodies), Ram Niwas were present in the meeting.

The tentative places for setting up these facilities would be Faridabad, Hisar, Jhajjar and Karnal. The Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Plants at these places would cover the hospitals of the entire state. The Chief Secretary also constituted a committee to be headed by Navraj Sandhu for drafting and finalizing the process to pave way for setting up Common Bio Waste facilities at four places of the state.

The other members of the Committee would comprise of representatives of Local Urban Bodies and Haryana Pollution Control Board. Chaudhery directed for seeking funds from the Union Government for financing the project. The contribution would also be made by Pollution Control Board. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest provides funds to the tune of Rs one crore as subsidy for setting up these projects and contribution of Rs 65 lakh would be made by the Pollution Control Board.

The Municipalities concerned would provide land for this purpose which would be in the outskirts of the major cities tentatively selected for setting up these facilities. It was informed in the meeting that the pollution Control Board was the regulatory authority for authorization of service providers or bio medical waste disposal. The Board authorizes the service provider to lift the waste from the hospital premises both government and private and dispose it as per the provisions of Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules of Union Ministry of Environment and Forest.At present, the disposal was being carried out by the private service provider at their own level through incinerators installed by them.