Cuttack, Oct. 25: The state-run SCB Medical College and Hospital has sought an additional 15 days to reply to the showcause notices slapped by the Odisha State Pollution Control Board for violating the norms related to biomedical waste disposal.

The board had issued two showcause notices to the premier hospital on October 14 and 15 asking it to reply within 15 days why action should not be taken against it for violation of biomedical waste management norms related to segregation, treatment and disposal.

Hospital superintendent P.K. Rath today told The Telegraph : "We have sought 15 more days to give a reply to the notices, along with the present status of biomedical waste disposal." He said the hospital would give an update on biomedical waste disposal to the board as the notices had apparently been issued on the basis of an inspection made in January.

Rath said: "The biomedical waste treatment plant has been functioning according to the required parameters since April after we repaired the incinerator and the shredder. The microwave facilities were made operational for Rs 29 lakh."

The incinerator, along with other components, is vital to the waste treatment process that converts waste into ash and flue gas through thermal treatment. However, the hospital is functioning without an effluent treatment plant. Consequently, untreated wastewater from the medical facility is being discharged into the nearby Taladanda canal and contaminating the irrigation channel, which starts at Jobra and links the Mahanadi river with the Bay of Bengal in Paradip.

Rath said the state government had provided Rs 3 crore for setting up the plant. "The site for the plant has been selected and the public health engineering department, which has been entrusted with its construction, has invited tenders for it."

He said measures were being taken to streamline biomedical waste collection by ensuring its segregation from other solid waste at the indoor wards and at the department level.