India News | HC Seeks Centre, Delhi Govt Stand on Plea Against Setting Up Bio-medical Waste Treatment Facilities

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday sought response from the Centre, Delhi government, and the Central Pollution Control Board on a public interest litigation against the setting up two Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBMWTF) here.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Jyoti Singh issued notice to the respondents on the petition which has claimed that the “request of expression of interest” in the tender document issued by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee under the Delhi government for setting up the two facilities is illegal and arbitrary.

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The court posted the next hearing on the plea filed by International Human Rights Council, a public charitable trust, on November 30.

In the petition filed through lawyer Suren Uppal, the petitioner has contended that the tender document for the two facilities, which have the capacity one of 14 tons per day and 32 tons per day, is in contravention with the Bio-Medical Waste Management, Rules, 2016 as it requires a “private interested vendor” to provide the site for setting it up.

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“(The) functioning of CBMWTF (the facility) is a heavy duty facility which needs to strictly comply with environment protection norms for safeguarding the public health and climate change. Hence, the said activity cannot be delegated to a private entity, when the statutory rules do not envisage the same,” the petition said.

The plea also raised concerns about the creation of a buffer zone of 500 metres between the facility and any sensitive/residential area, and the fixation of a pre-fixed rate for the services for private hospitals when government hospitals are offered free services.

“(The) modus operandi of the tender is flawed and discriminatory as it is seeking to profiteer by selecting the highest bidder quoting the license fees when no state largesse is granted to the Operators through this tender process as the Operator is providing free of charge services to all the Delhi Government Health Care Facility and charging pre-fixed rates from the private Health Care Facilities,” the petition said.

It also said that the setting up of two new facilities by replacing the existing treatment facility was “clearly not justified and is likely to increase the pollution due to the addition of new emission sources”.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)