Haryana: Pollution board increases costs for biomedical waste management

GURUGRAM: The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) will charge 10% more to handle biomedical waste or to grant authorisation for the same to healthcare facilities, it said in a notification on Wednesday. The body also said it will make the entire application process online.
With the notification, facilities outside municipal limits will need to pay up Rs 5,500 for HSPCB to manage their biomedical waste.
Facilities with a capacity of five hospital beds will be charged Rs 1,100 for authorisation by the HSPCB, those with 6-10 beds will have to shell out Rs 2,035 and hospitals with beds between 31 and 50 will have to pay Rs 6,050 per month. Healthcare facilities with more than 50 beds will have to pay Rs 8.8 per bed for a day.
All healthcare facilities, irrespective of the method of treatment and the quantity of biomedical waste, have to seek authorisation from the HSPCB. The central monitoring committee set up by the Union environment ministry had decided in 2018 that the issue of charging registration fees to handle biomedical waste was a state-specific subject and that state pollution control boards can take a call on it.