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Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding unscientific disposal of biomedical waste in Haryana, 25/03/2022

  • 25/03/2022

Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Varun Sheokand Vs Central Pollution Control Board & Others dated 25/03/2022. Grievance in the application is against unscientific disposal of biomedical waste in Faridabad, in violation of Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (BMW Rules).

The status report filed by the Chief Secretary, Haryana, March 24, 2022 said that in compliance to the NGT order, January 18, 2021 (Shailesh Singh Vs Sheela Hospital & Trauma Centre, Shahjahanpur & Others), the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) had issued directions to all stakeholders which included the following:

  • All CBWTFs have been directed to recycle the plastic waste through authorized recyclers for recycling of plastic waste to prevent the pilferage by unauthorized recyclers;
  • all regional officers of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board have been directed to ensure that the authorization is secured by every health care facilities (HCFs);
  • Health Department and Indian Medical Association, Haryana have been directed to ensure that the hazardous bio medical waste is not mixed with the general waste and HCFs should have secured the authorization under BMW Rules, 2016.

The court noted that from the report of the Chief Secretary, Haryana it is seen that the gap analysis study is underway. Review meeting has been held under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to bridge the gap in generation and scientific disposal and remedial action against the non-compliance.

The applicant has objected to the report, one being that there are several non-authorized HCFs also in the districts of Faridabad, Palwal, Nuh-Mewat and these are operating without obtaining any authorization from the state PCBs. Thus the BMW generated from them is either thrown unscientifically in an unhygienic condition or gets dumped into the ground.

The NGT headed by Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel, Sudhir Agarwal and Arun Kumar Tyagi directed that the objections of the applicant need to be verified and if found true further remedial action needs to be taken.