Court fines babus for hospitals flouting bio-med waste rules

Gives the state govt four weeks to take action against those not abiding by disposal norms

Irked by the laid-back attitude of officials regarding the disposal of bio-medical waste (BMW), Bombay high court on Thursday slapped a fine of Rs1,000 each on the member secretary of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and the secretary of the state health department. The court also ordered the officers to pay the amount from their own pockets and has also asked them to file a compliance report in four weeks.

The court had earlier directed the two bodies to take action against hospitals not following the BMW disposal norms as prescribed by the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998. They were also asked to submit an action-taken report to the court.

However, out of the 40 hospitals inspected by the court commissioners, two hospitals - MA Poddar Hospital and Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for animals - had very poor compliance of the waste disposal norms. The court then directed the MPCB and the health department to ensure that the hospitals took corrective measures or shut shop.

The court had also asked for an action-taken report regarding compliance of BMW disposal norms in 1,800 unregistered hospitals in the state. However, Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice VM Kanade were perturbed to know that none of these tasks were completed.

The authorities attracted further ire of the court when they claimed that they had not issued notices to the 1,800 hospitals.

Previously, the court had reprimanded the government for its casual approach towards the implementation of the BMW disposal rules in hospitals across the state. “We expect the state government and the MPCB to act with a greater sense of responsibility” the court had then stated.

A report submitted by court commissioners and advocates Shiraz Rustomji and Uday Warunjikar had stated that in the many of the private and public hospitals in the city, the disposal of BMW is not taken seriously either by the staff or the administration of the hospitals.