PALAKKAD: Giving a shot in the arm for activists demanding decentralisation of the Indian Medical Association’s bio-medical waste processing plant, a document obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the facility does not have dangerous and offensive trades (D&O) licence since March 2017. The Pudussery Panchayat which has been issuing the D&O licence to the IMA plant processing medical waste of than 6,000 private and 130 government hospitals says the plant officials had failed to produce relevant documents from fire and safety department for the licence.
RTI activist and BJP district secretary Rajeev P. who received the document said the environmental and political protesters were not for its closure but reducing the amount of the waste including aborted fetuses and surgically removed cancerous parts brought from all the private and government hospitals in Kerala to this plant named IMAGE.
“It is situated nearly 600 meters away from the water reservoir of Malampuzha Dam and within its catchment area. With irregularities out in the open, the water and soil from the water bodies in the region need to be tested, and an environmental impact study was done,” he said. "That this plant functions with two incinerators that burn waste in 900 degree Celsius did not have mandatory licences points to the fact that units needed to be set up in each district to process the medical waste.”
