Mumbai: A division bench of acting Chief Justice H L Gokhale and justice V M
on Wednesday issued notices to seven leading private and government
hospitals in the city asking them to explain their bio-medical waste
disposal practices. The high court was hearing a PIL filed by the Consumer
Welfare Association.
The CWA referred to newspaper reports on notices sent by the Maharashtra
Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to the seven hospitals, including the
government-runs J J Hospital, St George, Cama and GT. The private hospitals
that were issued notices in October 2005 were Lilavati at Bandra, Hinduja at
Mahim and Nanavati at Vile Parle. The MPCB had sent the notices after a
survey showed that these hospitals did not have a shredder or effluent
treatment plant on the premises to treat biomed waste.
“The government and the private hospitals will now have to explain
whether they have taken remedial measures,” said advocate Rajeev Chavan,
counsel for CWA.
BMC counsel K K Singhvi informed the court that all private hospitals in
the city were using the facility provided by the corporation, which has
appointed a contractor to collect waste material that includes human and
animal anatomical parts, tissues, fluids, solid waste, syringes and other
materials. Mumbai’s 1,354 private, 293 municipal and 12 government hospitals
generate about 10 tonnes of bio-medical waste daily. Singhvi told the court
that the waste was sent to the incinerator at
Sewri or to the waste disposal facility at Taloja.
In another January 2007 report, the MPCB also took the government to
task over its failure to provide proper disposal facilities in its hospitals
across the state. Of the 366 government hospitals in the state, about 162
were found to be violating bio-med waste disposal rules. In 239 government
hospitals, there were no autoclave machines. The court has asked the
government to file a reply by March 7 on the action it has taken to provide
these facilities.