Medical waste shifted from Pazhavoor in Tirunelveli district to Kerala on second day.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Following the controversy over the dumping of biomedical and other waste from Kerala in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the Local Self-Government department (LSGD) has constituted a committee to identify and take action against those responsible for the action. Minister for Local Self-Governments M.B. Rajesh told The Hindu that the role of accredited agencies involved in collection of waste from various institutions as well as negligence on the part of the hospitals.
“Based on the committee’s findings, stringent action will be taken to ensure that such indiscriminate dumping of waste in other States is not repeated. Monitoring and tracking of waste movement by private agencies contracted for the purpose will be strengthened. We need to think of things to be taken care of while engaging such agencies,” said Mr. Rajesh.
Over the past couple of days, a team from Kerala led by Sakshi Mohan, Assistant Collector, Thiruvananthapuram, has been coordinating the efforts to transport back the waste spread across 6 sites across an area of 16 square km in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. As of Monday evening, a total of 18 truckloads of waste have been transported back to Kerala. The Clean Kerala company has been entrusted with the task of segregation, drying and processing of the various kinds of waste.
“We have removed 99% of the waste from these regions. Now we are collecting the remaining waste spread across the place by the winds. The waste was dumped in around 30 heaps across a few panchayats,” said R.S. Gopakumar, Health Officer, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, a member of the team coordinating the efforts to remove the waste.
Faulty segregation
According to those involved in clearing the dumps, the segregation of waste from the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) was faulty as the packages meant for general waste had the biohazard label on them. A few used syringes, gloves, medicine cartons and other lower grade medical waste were seen mixed with the large amount of general waste in these packages.
The officials involved in the State’s waste management apparatus see the whole issue as damaging the image created by government through wide-ranging efforts to address various kinds of waste.
Published – December 23, 2024 08:58 pm IST