The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday took a serious view of reports on biomedical waste being dumped into waterbodies. Wanting to know the steps taken to curb this practice and whether a monitoring mechanism was in place, the court suo motu impleaded the Health Secretary and the Director General of Police as respondents in the case.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi observed that even biomedical waste from neighbouring States was being dumped in Tamil Nadu and officials were not keeping vigil. Action needed to be taken against those involved in such activities and the officials concerned.
The court directed the State to respond to a series of queries: ‘was biomedical waste treated in the prescribed manner?, whether waste from neighbouring States was being dumped here?, did officials detect violations? and what action was taken?’
The court observed that many were taking advantage of COVID-19 lockdown and indulged in such activities. The court was hearing the public interest litigation petition filed by S. Manivel from Manapparai in Tiruchi district, who complained that biomedical waste was being dumped into Karadukulam Kanmai at Vaiyampatti. The case was adjourned till November 3 for submission of reports.
