A Jagatsinghpur-based private nursing home operator has been sentenced to undergo two years imprisonment for its failure to handle biomedical waste — Odisha’s first conviction for abusing Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998.
Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Jagatsinghpur, Sanjeev Kumar Samant, on Wednesday convicted Anjan Kumar Das, proprietor of Cure-well Clinic and Nursing Home, of violating the BMW (M&H) Rules.
“This is the first conviction of a health institution under the BMW (M&H) Rules in the State ever since the Odisha State Pollution Control Board commenced enforcing the rules since 2000. Another 20 health institutions, including two government medical college and hospitals and a number of district headquarters hospitals, are facing trial in courts,” said B.P. Pattajoshi, senior law officer of the OSPCB, here on Thursday.
High Court directive
Mr. Pattajoshi said, “Orissa High Court is also seized of the matter. The court has directed all SDJMs to dispose biomedical waste matters in a time-bound manner.”
In the present case, the pollution control board had granted the Jagatsinghpur nursing home provisional authorisation on February 16, 2004, valid up to February 15, 2005, on a trial basis.
Inspection
After the lapse of authorisation, a SPCB regional officer had inspected the premise and detected serious lapse in waste management.
Subsequently, a show-cause notice was served on the organisation. The accused had failed to submit a compliance report.
The unit was again inspected on February 26, 2006.
“SPCB had, on numerous occasions, asked the nursing home operator to comply with the BMW (M&H) Rules. But, it did not adhere to the practice of collection and segregation in accordance with the provisions of the Rules. At the end, the board had to file a criminal case under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986,” said SPCB counsel Deb Kishore Kar.
Mr. Kar said the SDJM had also imposed a penalty of Rs.50,000 on the nursing home for violating norms.
Advocate Khursid Ali assisted in the case.
