Why does the most literate state lag in waste disposal?

Trash talk

While many hospitals in Kerala, especially in the North, have come on the radar for ‘transporting’ their biomedical waste into Karnataka, the local industry bodies and medical associations strongly defend the hospitals. Sources in the Kerala medical sector argue that Kerala has been strictly implementing the Bio-medical Waste Management Rules.

The association alleges that the vendors or waste dealers who collect these waste are not processing it scientifically and resorting to illegal means.

The seized waste from Nanjangud and other parts between Gundlupet and Nanjangud were tested at KSPCB labs recently.

READ: Kerala chokes Karnataka with toxic waste

Senior scientific officers in Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) said that Member Secretary, KSPCB has shot off letters to their counterparts in Kerala asking them to crack down on such illegal business and regulate hospitals.

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“Till date, we have not received any response from Kerala. We have sent them the details of scientific analysis of the waste samples that we tested and FIR registered against Kerala persons. But they have not come back to us till date,” a technical officer with KSPCB said.

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The KSPCB officials say that Kerala has only one or two biomedical waste processing units and due to space constraints and hygiene issue they have not been able to set up more centres. “They do not want to treat their own waste as they feel it might affect the tourism industry. Can the state with most literates in the country resort to such irresponsible and unscientific methods of disposing their waste?” questioned a KSPCB scientific officer who analysed the waste dumped by Kerala residents in Nanjangud.