Medical waste issue: Meeting to be held with environment minister

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The municipal corporation has appointed a Goa-based advanced biotech company to collect biomedical waste from government and private hospitals in the city and dispose of it scientifically. However, some officials of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board are allegedly favouring another company and are reluctant to grant the required no-objection certificate (NOC) for the biotech firm to set up its plant at Shendra MIDC. Instead, the board has reportedly issued an NOC to the company that the civic body had earlier removed. In this regard, a meeting with environment minister Pankaja Munde will soon be held, mayor Sameer Rajurkar announced.

For the past 22 years, Nashik-based Watergrace company handled biomedical waste collection and disposal in the city. Due to unsatisfactory performance, the municipal corporation terminated its contract and floated a fresh tender, which was awarded to the biotech company.

Despite complying with all regulations, the firm is facing difficulties in obtaining the required NOCs from the pollution control board, making it difficult to establish the proposed modern plant. The company is currently operating from Patoda, where it is also facing operational hurdles, it was revealed during a review meeting chaired by mayor Rajurkar.

Municipal commissioner G. Sreekanth had repeatedly followed up with the pollution control board, but the issue remained unresolved. The matter was also raised with the minister of state for environment, but without result, prompting the biotech company to approach the court. Rajurkar said a meeting with environment minister Pankaja Munde will soon be organised to resolve the issue.

Shortage of staff

During the meeting, the mayor directed municipal officer of health Dr Paras Mandlecha to prepare a list of priority tasks of the health department. He also instructed officials to fill vacant posts. Out of 501 sanctioned posts in the health department, 271 are vacant. Of the 27 sanctioned doctor posts, only eight to nine permanent doctors are currently serving in the municipal corporation.