The police in Karnataka have arrested two men for dumping medical waste in Mysuru. The people who were arrested for dumping medical waste are from the neighbouring state of Kerala, named Afzal Muneer and Syed Mohammed. The three people who escaped are named Shoaib, Muneer and the truck driver Kabir.
Nanjangud Rural Police said that these five men have dumped medical waste in the industrial area 8 to 10 times in the last few months. “For so many years, people of Mysuru have been facing this problem where garbage from Kerala is being dumped in several of our taluks including Nanjangud, T Narasipura and HD Kote. Initially, they used to dump mixed waste and plastic waste. Now they are dumping hazardous biomedical waste, which can cause major health problems for people living here,” said a police official with Nanjangud Rural Police.
Earlier the hospitals from Kerala used to dump the biomedical waste in Tamil Nadu; the state police as well as pollution control board has regularly complained about this. The Tamil Nadu cities which border Kerala- Coimbatore and Tirunelveli- are most affected by this.
The state authorities have observed that the biomedical medical waste from the hospitals of Kerala is being dumped in their states. On paper, the hospitals of Kerala sell the bio-hazardous waste to the independent shopkeepers who claim to safely it dispose of.
This model is followed throughout the state of Kerala. In Northern districts, the waste is dumped in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, while the Southern districts, they dump waste in districts of Tamil Nadu. The authorities in Tirunelveli are complaining against this since long.
The Communist government in Kerala, which claims to be environment-friendly, follows this model for bio-hazardous waste disposal. The Kerala government often brags of performing best on socio-economic indicators and every Keralite you meet will tell that his/her state has 100 per cent literacy. But, the people have not been able to pressure its government accountable to safe disposal of waste, or built as a sustainable waste disposal model.
It is funny that instead of minimizing the hazardous waste and building a sustainable model for disposal, the government is encouraging the waste disposal in neighbouring states, just to improve its indicators.
Given the fact the disease which spread from biomedical waste are most of the times communicable, it is stupid for the hospital authorities to look for a haven in neighbouring states. The Communist government of Kerala must develop a sustainable model for bio-hazardous waste disposal instead of looking for safe heavens.