In a massive find, the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) filed a police complaint against unidentified persons after officials stumbled upon 9.96 tonnes of biomedical waste at Quthbullapur.
Officials had visited the area based on complaints by local residents, and found several things like needles, syringes, discarded medicines, dressings and other such material.
According to a press release by the PCB, the bags that were dumped even had the labels of more than 20 healthcare establishments.
The Deccan Chronicle reported that the bags carried the name of a common biomedical waste facility, Medicare Environmental Management Pvt. Ltd, which seemingly dealt with the waste of 20 institutions including Yashoda Hospital, Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust, KIMS and Dr Reddy’s Lab, among others.
They were all issued a show-cause notice.
According to the Pollution Control Board, there were 1,634 registered hospitals in Telangana in 2015, which generated a staggering 8.7 tonnes of medical waste every day.
The Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) rules, 1998, dictates that Plastic, rubber and glass disposables like gloves, bottles, syringes, tubes and urine bags are supposed to be sterilized and shredded.
The rules catergorise bio-medical waste into 10 different categories, and specify a method of disposal for each of them.
This also comes two weeks after the TSPCB seized a tanker that was allegedly headed to dump toxic industrial waste into Hyderabad's Musi river.
Authorities carried out a planned operation, and intercepted the tanker at Choutuppal, along with senior PCB officials and the police.
The tanker was transporting 10 to 20 kilolitres of untreated effluents, and officials suspected that it was going to dump it in the Musi river.
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