GHAZIABAD: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted a high-level committee for carrying out inspections and acting against private hospitals that are running in Ghaziabad without the mandatory consent to establish and environment clearance certificates and discharging bio-medical and solid waste.
The court has ordered that the panel comprising officials of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) as well as the Ghaziabad district magistrate to furnish its report in two months. The move comes in the wake of a petition by a city-based environmentalist alleging that 14 private hospitals are dumping medical waste in a drain which finds its way into the Hindon.
In his petition, Sushil Raghav claimed that “these private hospitals in Ghaziabad are blatantly violating environmental laws, such as the absence of NOCs (no-objection certificates), disposal of bio-medical waste, solid waste and untreated discharge of effluent of hospitals, resulting in environment degradation and posing as a health hazard to people in and around Ghaziabad”.
In view of the petition, the NGT, in its order dated December 16, said that “it is necessary to verify the factual position. Accordingly, we constitute a joint committee of CPCB, UPPCB and district magistrate, Ghaziabad, to verify the facts and furnish a factual and action taken report in the matter”.
The UPPCB has been made the nodal agency for coordination and compliance. “As per the order, the committee has been asked to meet within two weeks and undertake site visit and take remedial action, following the due process of law. The committee has been asked to furnish a report within two months,” said Raghav.
An official from district administration told TOI that the process of forming the committee is underway. “Once the committee is formed, a meeting will be called at the earliest as per the direction of NGT and action will be taken,” he said.
The court is slated to hear the case in March next year.
