'Over 1.60 lakh healthcare facilities operating in country sans permission'

New Delhi: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) told the National Green Tribunal Tuesday that over 1.60 lakh healthcare facilities across the country have not obtained requisite permission under Bio-medical Waste Management (BMWM) Rules and running without authorisation.

The apex pollution monitoring body told the green panel that as per the annual report submitted by state pollution control boards, out of 2,70,416 healthcare facilities, only 1,11,122 units have applied for authorisation and 1,10,356 HCFs have obtained authorization under BMWM Rules, 2016.

Out of these 2,70,416 nos of HCFs, only 1,10,356 HFCs are authorized till the year 2019, it said.

"Apart from those who have applied and those who have obtained authorisation, there are about 50,000 healthcare facilities who have neither applied nor taken the authorisation," CPCB said in its report.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the states to expedite the process and complete it by December 31 and file a compliance report with the CPCB.

According to the report, 25 state and union territories have completed their inventories of all healthcare facilities and 10 namely; Assam, Kerala, Mizoram, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Meghalaya

and Uttarakhand have yet to do it.

The tribunal asked these States to expedite the process and complete the same positively by December 31, 2020 and file a compliance report with the CPCB.

The report said there is no Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBWTFs) in seven States and UTs namely –Andaman & Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim to cater service of treatment and disposal of biomedical waste.

It said that these States are managing disposal of biomedical waste with existing captive treatment facilities installed by health care facilities or by deep burial of waste.