Kangra villages protest against medical waste incinerator

Dharamshala: The residents of 16 villages of Kangra, including hundreds of women and senior citizens, are protesting against a medical waste incinerator set up in their neighbourhood.
Although there are many medical institutes in lower Himachal Pradesh, the successive governments did not give a thought to the disposal of the medical waste. Thus, both the government and private hospitals are dependent on agencies, mostly from Punjab, for their medical waste disposal.
The incinerator installed by the state government at Dharamshala, near civil hospital, is lying defunct for many years now.Recently, a few private players got together and set up a plant, but are facing the ire of the residents of nearly 16 villages in Kangra region.
The residents claimed that smoke coming out of chimneys of the waste disposal plant has become a source for many diseases, particularly itching. It is also polluting water sources, they added.
They have demanded that the medical waste disposal plant be shifted to a more isolated location. Protests by the villagers have forced the authorities to reach out to people. The villagers gave the officials who visited them medical proofs for their ailments.
Rakesh Kumar, deputy commissioner of Kangra, said that he had instructed authorities to assess the situation for a month.
GD Gupta, chief medical officer, has also asked a team of doctors to take blood samples of people living in areas situated close to the medical waste disposal plant.
Pankesh Kumar, pradhan of Dughiyari village, said that people are not asking the government to close down the plant. “They are only asking the authorities to shift the plant somewhere else.”
According to the rules, medical waste cannot be kept in the hospitals for more than 48 hours and has to be transferred to a disposal plant.
Dr. Rajendera Prasad Medical College is the largest hospital of Himachal Pradesh, but there is no proper medical waste disposal system for this institute. The hospital has the capacity to accommodate 700 patients.
The state has nearly 200 hospitals and they are also dependent on private agencies for their medical waste disposal.