33 HOSPITALS FOUND IGNORING NORMS FOR WASTE DISPOSAL

PATIALA: Government-run Guru Nanak Dev Hospital and Medical College, Amritsar and Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, are among 33 hospitals in the state that violate pollution control norms, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has found.

The PPCB conducted raids at 125 hospitals — the state has 10,000 hospitals — over three days and has released the results.

The raids were primarily meant to check if bio-medical waste was being disposed of properly.

In cases of Amritsar and Faridkot, hospitals are equipped to deal with the waste, but the staff were not following norms.

Civil hospitals of Patti (Tarn Taran), Mansa, Muktsar and Khanna are other government hospitals that were running foul of the law on disposal of bio-medical waste. Eleven private hospitals in Ludhiana were among those found flouting the norms.

PPCB chairman KS Pannu said that board would follow the policy of zero tolerance with regard to bio-medical waste as it is dangerous and any negligence in its disposal led to the spread of deadly diseases.

“PPCB engineers have been directed to keep a constant watch on the hospitals for ensuring proper disposal of bio-medical waste,” he said, adding that for the recent inspections, teams had been formed under environment engineers.

“The PPCB has already given detailed guidelines to the hospitals for handling and management of bio-medical waste which is collected by specialised agencies authorised by the Board. These agencies collect about 14 tonnes of bio-medical waste with vehicles fitted with centrally controlled GPS systems.”