Waste dumping: Kerala pollution board to discuss the issue

A state-level monitoring committee on waste management in Kerala is likely to discuss the illegal dumping of waste from Kerala in Karnataka even as top authorities of the Kerala government, including the state Health minister and environment secretary, maintained that they were unaware of dumping of waste, including biomedical waste, from Kerala in neighbouring states.

Reacting to DH report on the issue, the minister and top officials said that they would look into the matter.

READ: Kerala chokes Karnataka with toxic waste

Health Minister K K Shailaja Teacher told DH that she had not yet come across instances of biomedical waste from Kerala being dumped in Karnataka. “Our information is that the entire biomedical waste generated in Kerala is being processed at IMA’s plant, IMAGE, in Palakkad as well as the treatment plants at some major hospitals. If waste from Kerala is being dumped in Karnataka, the Karnataka authorities need to be vigilant against it and report it to us so that we can also act.”

She also said that steps were being taken to set up biomedical waste treatment plants at all government medical college hospitals in Kerala. All major private hospitals were also being regularly instructed to set up biomedical waste treatment facility as IMAGE was now finding it difficult to treat the entire biomedical waste generated by the government and private hospitals.

Principal Secretary to the Kerala Environment department Usha Titus, who is in charge of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, also maintained ignorance of waste from Kerala being dumped outside the state. She said that the pollution control board would be asked to look into it and take appropriate action.

Meanwhile, Kerala State Pollution Control Board member-secretary Sreekala S said that the matter would be taken up in the next meeting of the state-level monitoring committee on waste management, which is headed by Justice A V Ramakrishna Pillai and have top government officials as members.

“We received a communication from the Central Pollution Control Board’s zonal office in Bengaluru regarding the recent instances of waste from Kerala dumped in Karnataka. A probe is already on to trace the culprits and appropriate legal actions would be taken. The issue would be also taken up as special agenda in next meeting of the state level monitoring committee scheduled to be held this month,” she said.

District collectors and police chiefs of districts like Wayanad and Kasargod that share borders with Karnataka also said that they did not even receive any complaint from Karnataka authorities regarding waste from Kerala being transported outside the state.