CHENNAI: The regulation of biomedical-waste disposal in Tamil Nadu seems to be lax even amid the pandemic. On Saturday, activists found heaps of biomedical waste dumped alongside the service road of Nazarathpet near the Ponnamallee Municipality in the suburbs of Chennai. Among the trash were PPE kits, aprons used in hospitals, gloves, medicine boxes and syringes.
Pughalvendhan V, who has been identifying illegally-dumped biomedical waste for several years, spotted this on Saturday, and said it was not removed even on Sunday. “It is near the Miyawaki forest in Nazarathpet, and though the trash is in the open, the authorities have turned a blind eye to it,” he asserted. Though there are many CCTV cameras in the vicinity, the authorities, now and in the past, have not nabbed even one offender.
Express had in 2019 written about biomedical waste being dumped in the area, and none of the offenders was caught. Pughalventhan said he had filed an RTI petition with the Central Pollution Control Board to know what action was taken based on his complaints regarding previous instances of dumping biomedical waste. The replies he got were irrelevant, and pertained to other locations, he noted. “They did not give an accurate reply though I mentioned the complaint number and reference number,” he added.
The Madras High Court in 2019 directed the secretaries of the State Health department and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to inspect all medical institutions once in two months to check the implementation of the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 1989 as amended in 2016.
Express had reported in November, 2019 that though more than a dozen reports on biomedical-waste dumping were reported in a year, the authorities registered only two cases. The National Green Tribunal took suo moto cognizance of the media reports, but the authorities have failed to act. When contacted, TNPCB officials said they would look into the issue. Express also shared images of the open dumping of biomedical waste with the officials.