Tamil Nadu to invoke Goondas Act to help prevent dumping of bio-medical waste; Governor clears bill

Chennai: People dumping bio-medical waste in Tamil Nadu can now be detained under the stringent Goondas Act, 1982 with Governor R N Ravi putting his seal of approval to an amendment made to the Act in this regard.

The bill was passed in the Assembly in April 2025 amid incidents of medical waste from neighbouring Kerala being dumped in border districts of Tamil Nadu leading to an outrage.

The government brought amendments to the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Cyber Law Offenders, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Sexual Offenders, Slum-Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982 and Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016.

While introducing the bill, the government had said the amendments were necessary since dumping of biomedical waste poses grave risk to public health and environment.

The bill says who disposes of or attempts to dispose of any bio-medical waste in contravention of the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016, which is punishable under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 can be detained under the Goondas Act.

“…for the expression "bootleggers, cyber law offenders, drug offenders", the expression "bio-medical waste offenders, bootleggers, cyber law offenders, drug offenders, economic-offenders" shall be substituted,” the bill said.

Waste from Kerala being dumped in many villages across the state border in Tamil Nadu in districts like Theni, Kanyakumari, Tenkasi, and Tirunelveli has been a recurring affair, despite land owners filing police complaint and taking objection to such a move.

Locals said institutions from Kerala have started dumping heaps of waste, particularly biomedical waste without burning them in vacant lands. They suspect that lorries that come from Kerala to carry load from a near-by paper mill bring these waste and dump them in villages.

In December 2024, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the Kerala government to take back plastic waste that were dumped in open lands in Tirunelveli district by medical institutions from that state.

Medical and plastic waste from the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Thiruvananthapuram were brought to Kodaganallur and Palavoor villages in Tirunelveli district on December 15 and dumped on vacant land owned by private individuals.