Chennai: Tamil Nadu is sitting on a ticking time bomb called Bio Medical Waste. Coastal districts like Chennai, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur are extremely vulnerable and are staring at a major health concern post floods with hundreds of hospitals, both government and private, allegedly disposing-off 'potentially infectious' waste unscientifically.
This was brought to light by the State government in a status report submitted before the southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday declaring that 172 out of 284 government hospitals in the state that fall under the purview of Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) don't possess Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), which is mandatory under Water Act 1974 and Air Act 1981. Similarly, 33 hospitals that come under Directorate of Medical Education (DME), annexed with government medical colleges, are also guilty.
After going through the status report, the second bench of NGT comprising judicial member P. Jyothimani and expert member R. Nagendran, expressed serious concerns about how these hospitals would be disposing biomedical waste. The bench has given 30-day deadline for all these government hospitals to obtain necessary permissions from TNPCB.
Giving full discretionary powers to TNPCB, the tribunal has also directed the regulatory authority to examine each application and also check how the hospitals were disposing the waste all these years.
“Give the tribunal the list of hospitals that don’t meet the standards to pass appropriate orders. We don’t have to pass adverse orders at this juncture against government hospitals because patients would be affected”, Justice Jyothimani said before posting the matter for first week of February.
Abdul Saleem, special government pleader, admitted there were lapses on the part of a few government hospitals in obtaining TNPCB’s consent, but argued that many applications of
government hospitals were awaiting approval for a long time.
For instance, the application of Vellore Medical College for CTE, CTO submitted on April 15, 2014, is still not processed. He told Deccan Chronicle that following NGT orders last month most government hospitals had already applied for consent.
“Out of 325 hospitals in the state, 205 have submitted fresh applications, 36 have applied for renewal and 84 have the valid consent”, he said. The tribunal also appreciated petitioner Jawaharlal Shanmugam for bringing such an important issue before it.
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