Coimbatore Corporation on Monday sealed seven units in Vellalore that dealt with glass and plastic medical waste. The seven were unauthorised.
According to A. Amalraj, Assistant Commissioner in-charge, South Zone, the civic body on July 10 served notices on the owners these units asking them to shutdown their operations within 24 hours.
The civic body acted against the owners on July 29 after they failed to comply with the order.
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He said that Engineer in-charge of South Zone P. Ganeshwaran and himself sealed the units that functioned from makeshift structures near the southern side of the Vellalore dump yard. The units segregated wastes that could be reused to send them to recycling units and dumped in the open the wastes that could not be used again.
Mr. Amalraj said that the Corporation action followed repeated complaints from Vellalore residents who said that they often found medical waste dumped in the open.
Even as the Coimbatore Corporation acted against the units, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board engaged the owners of the units by calling for a meeting. District Environment Engineer, Coimbatore South, K. Ravichandran said that the Board officials explained to the owners the rules to drive home the point that what they did with the wastes was illegal.
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The board officials told the owners that they could procure such wastes after it has been autoclaved by units authorised to handle medical wastes. Their buying wastes directly from hospitals was against rules and that they should give up such practises.
Mr. Ravichandran said that a few owners were curious to know how they could go about conducting their business in authorised fashion so as to escape legal action.