Team Herald
MARGAO: An alert citizen on Friday alerted the Margao Municipal Council on the medical waste dumped by the roadside at Monte Dongor, which was found to be from a well known hospital at Margao.
The veterinary doctor who had gone to visit her father at Monte Dongor noticed a dog raking away what looked like an intravenous sets. On checking the waste, the doctor identified that it was a medical waste and immediately called up the municipality.
Municipal staff rushed to the site and found that around five bags of medical waste comprising gloves, cotton gauge, intravenous sets, bandages, etc were dumped and on inspecting the waste realised that it had all come from a town hospital.
The locals disclosed that they saw two persons coming on two-wheeler and dumping the plastic bags there before fleeing from the place.
When the municipal staff contacted the hospital, one Dr Prasad Gode arrived at the scene with a vehicle and shifted all the medical waste into it and took it away stating that he is taking it back to the hospital.
Replying to a question, Dr Prasad said they generally autoclave their medical waste and the rest is taken care of by Margao Municipal Council when in reality MMC does not take any medical waste.
“We do not have the mandate or the facilities to deal with the medical waste,” asserted MMC Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai.
She pointed out that medical waste is to be disposed by the generator, who in fact gives an undertaking when they apply for the licence and added that she had instructed the chief officer to take necessary action in the matter.
Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik said, “He was still collecting the required information.”
He further assured that stringent action will be taken against the hospital for its negligent behavior.
Meanwhile, in another development last night, a citizen video filmed the waste being dumped near the wholesale fish market. The waste was reportedly brought by a fisherman from Benaulim in a pickup truck.
