The Bombay High Court has asked state government authorities including the civic body in Kalyan Dombivli as well as the state pollution control board to provide answers about the disposal of biomedical waste relating to coronavirus patients. The court sought an urgent reply from the authorities saying that this is an “important issue”.
This comes after public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Kishor Sohoni, a resident of Dombivli over the alleged improper treatment of biomedical waste before its disposal as per the Biomedical Waste Management Rules.
The PIL claims that biomedical waste from pathology labs and hospitals were being dumped in Aadharwadi dumping ground located in Kalyan without proper treatment. The applicant’s lawyer, Adv. Sadhana Kumar, asked the court to intervene and make sure dumping of untreated waste is stopped at the Aadharwadi dumping ground.
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“We also told the court that while KDMC needed to check the disposal of biomedical waste at the Aadharwadi ground, we do not know whether the CPCB guidelines were being followed in the rest of the state,” Adv. Kumar added.
Keeping this in mind, the PIL also asks for a thorough review of biomedical waste disposal across the state of Maharashtra to ensure proper rules and guidelines are being followed in other parts of the state.
In the meantime, the Maharashtra Government, as well as the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in Thane and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) are yet to respond to the PIL. However, the courts have given until July 14 for the authorities to respond to the matter.
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