Set up common agency for toxic waste in Tricity: Plea

CHANDIGARH: A petition filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court has demanded a common authority for the Tricity of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali to manage biomedical waste in view of the coronavirus pandemic along the same lines of Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) for the national capital region (NCR).

Ranjit Singh, 54, a resident of Kishangarh village in Chandigarh, the petitioner, has submitted the stakeholders in the Tricity are required to ensure biomedical waste is not dumped in the open by all hospitals and segregated and disposed of. “It is essential that a concrete action plan be prepared with respect to the three cities separately as well as conjointly in terms of similar directions issued by the Supreme Court in its order dated July 21 and 30 in the petition titled MC Mehta versus Union of India,” the petition said.

The plea said it is essential that due to the geographical area of the three cities, an authority on the lines of EPCA is constituted so that a common strategy is adopted for urgent and stricter implementation of various points under Biomedical Waste (management and handling) 2016 Rules following the existence of large number of government and private hospitals, blood banks, laboratories, and Covid care/ testing centres.

The petitioner has sought directions for strict implementation of various provisions of the rules, especially regarding the adoption of bar-coding system by various hospitals/dispensaries/laboratories.

According to the petitioner, the Tricity is a contiguous urban agglomeration spanning over three different administrations/governments—Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab — and has witnessed a virulent outbreak of Covid-19 with an increase in the number of cases. “Under the circumstances that have arisen due to the outbreak, a common authority on the lines of EPCA for NCR is needed for the Tricity, ” the petitioner has submitted.

The petition is expected to be heard this week.