BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to take steps to make the common man aware about disposal of masks as per the guidelines of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).Passing the order, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said the KSPCB issued a circular on August 24 regarding the implementation of the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board about disposal of waste from the houses of Covid patients. However, the state has not created awareness in this regard, it said.
The bench also said the issue has a great deal of importance in a city like Bengaluru with a population of 1.30 crore. Therefore, the state should consider it as of utmost importance and give wide publicity for the benefit of the common man immediately, the bench said while asking the state to give training to pourakarmikas to treat this waste as biomedical waste and handle accordingly.
The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that oxygen suppliers were charging `20-25 per cubic meter as transportation charges over and above the price of oxygen being supplied to hospitals as the state had failed to fix transportation charges. The bench said suppliers seem to be profiteering due to non-implementation of the order passed by the Union government on the matter. The state government should fix transportation charges on or before October 24, the bench ordered.