The clinical disposal unit at Fulbari on the outskirts of Siliguri. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Oct. 16: The nearly 1,500 health units in the six districts of north Bengal have been told to start using a common bio-medical waste disposal facility at Fulbari by November or face action by the state pollution control board.

Greenzen Bio Private Limited has provided an incinerator and an autoclave machine for waste disposal at Fulbari, 8km from Siliguri. The health units will have to arrange for the clinical waste to be transported there.

“A private organisation has provided the machines and we are the facilitators to oversee that all the health units, both government and private, dispose off their waste there. Since some of the nursing homes were reluctant to use the facility, we set the November deadline, failing which we will penalise them,” said Goutam Pal, the assistant environmental engineer of the Siliguri regional office of the state pollution control board.

According to the Bio-Medical (Waste Management and Handling) Rule, 1989, each health unit has to get its bio-waste treated.

“There are few health units in north Bengal, compared to Calcutta and the surrounding areas. They are small in capacity, too, making it impossible for them to install machines that cost more than Rs 20 lakh each. We were looking for a private organisation to provide the machines. Greenzen came forward and installed it six months ago,” Pal said.

Greenzen will charge Rs 495 per day per bed for government hospitals and Rs 3 per day per bed for private facilities. Pathological laboratories will have to pay Rs 750 monthly.

Earlier, respective municipalities in the districts or the units themselves collected, burnt and disposed the wastes in dumping yards.

“The Siliguri district hospital and the MJN Hospital in Cooch Behar have autoclaves that are not functioning but there are no incinerators anywhere else in north Bengal,” the official added.

Two meetings were held on October 11 and 12 with representatives of private and government hospitals of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling districts.

“There are 10 different types of clinical wastes. We have informed the units on how to segregate the items before bringing them to the disposal facility at Fulbari. Plastic items should be put in a blue bag and glass and iron items in the puncture proof container for autoclaving. The pathological waste must be put in a yellow bag for incineration,” Pal said.

If the health units still fail to comply with the norms of scientific disposal of clinical waste, they will have to face penalty that may be a closure of the units or disconnection of electricity.