Karimnagar hospitals violate bio-waste disposal rules

KARIMNAGAR: Even as Covid-19 cases are escalating across the State, government and private hospitals in the district are not disposing of biomedical waste properly. Private hospitals have been dumping the waste in the municipal corporation garbage collecting tractors. As per PCB guidelines, every hospital should have a sewage treatment plant but not one hospital here has one. Even if there are sewage treatment plants, arrangements should be made to segregate biomedical waste and normal waste before sending them to incinerator agencies. 

In addition to the waste disposal issue, poor sanitation prevails at all government hospitals. Right next to the Covid vaccination centre, there are choked toilets. A few days ago, Collector K Shashanka suggested that all private hospitals tie up with incinerator agencies.

The Venkataramana Incinerator Agency which has tied up with private and government civil hospitals told Express that some hospitals still do not segregate their waste properly. In view of this, the Collector is planning to conduct awareness programmes over biomedical waste segregation. Meanwhile, MKC Commissioner V Kranthi said that teams monitoring hospitals are imposing a fine of `10,000 to `20,000 over violation of bio-waste disposal.