Calcutta, Jan. 4 :    Calcutta, Jan. 4:  The civic authorities on Thursday undertook a drive against recycled syringes, saline bottles and other disposable items in medical use. This move comes in the wake of a report in Metro, on January 3, on such a racket thriving in the city. The CMC health and conservancy departments conducted joint raids in east Calcutta and seized a huge load of used disposable syringes and empty saline bottles from a scrap vendor at Bibirbagan. Member, mayor-in-council, health, Javed Ahmed Khan, said raids would continue in scrap vendors' godowns in different parts of the city. He said the health department would conduct an awareness campaign among the scrap vendors, persuading them not to purchase used medical items from ragpickers. Conservancy chief Mala Roy said the seized syringes and saline bottles are dumped at the bio-medical waste disposal set-up at Dhapa. Both Khan and Roy stressed the need for an awareness campaign, as most handlers of these items were ignorant of the risk of contracting diseases like AIDS and Hepatitis-B.