A Reporter
SHILLONG, April 28: Ampareen Lyngdoh, Meghalaya Minister of Urban Affairs has refused to accept that there is any kind of haphazard disposal of bio-medical waste at the dumping site at Marten due to non-functioning of the incinerator. Reacting to a recent allegation made by an NGO, Lyngdoh said, “To say that bio-medical waste has been disposed of in an un-recommended method is wrong.” It may be mentioned on April 11, Hynniewtrep Youth Council – Mawlai Circle (HYC-MC) conducted an inspection at Marten and alleged that there has been haphazard disposal of bio-medical waste by the Shillong Municipal Board due to non-functiol of the incinerator, which is a treatment plant to dispose such wastes coming from the different hospitals in the city.
Lyngdoh said, “There are four categories of bio-medical wastes, out of which only one category requires to be destroyed through the use of incinerator.” According to Lyngdoh, each and every other bio-medical waste has a recommended disposal method and the landfill is one of the way in which some of the bio-medical wastes may be disposed of.
She, however, admitted that some defects have been detected in the incinerator around 15 days ago.
“I have been informed by the officer concerned that the photocell - which is an electrical part in the incinerator, has stop working. It has become dysfunctiol and the Municipal board has necessarily communicated with the supplier – Alphatherm, a Delhi based company,” she said.
She further informed adding “I have been informed that within fifteen days this spare-parts will be made available and most likely the incinerator will be functiol after that.” She also stated that around 50kgs of bio-medical wastes comes to the incinerator each day. “So, if calculated for 15 days at the rate of 50kgs a day, we still have a storage capacity to store such bio-medical wastes for that many days.”