COIMBATORE:People staged protests outside a company after it was found to be segregating medical waste on agricultural land at Iyampathi near KG Chavadi, near here, on Thursday afternoon.
Sources said the residents of Iyampathi had noticed that lorries were unloading medical waste there during the last two days.
On Thursday noon, people thronged the place and demanded action against the company. On being informed, Madukkarai Tahsildhar D Dhanabal, along with the police, rushed to the spot and started investigations. The land is owned by one Biju Joseph, who also owns the company. People found the hospital waste being segregated on a part of the agricultural land. However, Biju Thomas does not have a licence for it.
After segregation it, Biju Thomas hands over the waste to the Technotherm unit at Chettipalayam. Only Technotherm is authorised to collect and segregate medical waste. Sources said as much two tonnes of medical waste - gloves, syringes, needles, dress materials of patients, etc - were found dumped on the land. Dhanabal said the landowner had been asked to remove the medical waste as he did not have the licence to collect the waste and was doing it in violating rules. The Tahsildar has also recommended to the Madukkarai police to register a case against Biju Joseph.
In another incident, villagers in Kaniyur seized a mini-auto carrying poultry waste to Namakkal from Kerala. They stopped the vehicle as a foul smell was emanating from it.