FROM A REPORTER
SHILLONG, May 11: Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) Donbok Kharlyngdoh President of Mawlai circle on Monday submitted a memorandum to Ampareen Lyngdoh Minister of Urban Affairs Department demanding that all unwanted and illegal disposal of expired medicine, corpses etc at Marten should be stopped.
Addressing newsmen on Monday, D Kharlyngdoh said, “We came here to remind the Minister of Urban Affairs Ampareen Lyngdoh that on April 11 during our spot inspection along with members of the Dorbar Shnong of Mawlai Nongkwar found that the Municipal Authority is breaking its own norms and rules as prescribed in the Bye-Laws and other legislation of the Country.”
He also informed that during the spot inspection they found that the incinerator at Marten has not been functioning for the last 6 to 7 months posing a lot of threat to the local residents. It was also found that the Marten was grossly unequipped with the requirements needed. there is no Effluent/sewage treatment plan for discharge of effluent wastes but are discharged directly in an open air that will polluted the Wah Jri, stream nearby Lynti Rim, Mawlai Nongkwar area, the landfill area is unscientific and pose a threat for the workers as well as passersby.
“Many local residents near the Marten have started complaining over such act of disposing expired medicine, medical waste and the cremation of unclaimed bodies in the Marten which is highly unscientific,” said Kharlyngdoh adding “the authority concern did not comply with the norms of the Municipal Bye-Laws and other Legislations of the Country.”
Expressing concern Kharlyngdoh said, “By burning the medical waste in the open the environment and the air we breathe can become toxic and this will create more health problems for the people in the locality of also daily passerby and tourist as it is the main route to and from Shillong City.”
Kharlyngdoh also demanded that the concerned authority should speed up the preparations of a proper landfill with efficiently designed protective measure against pollution and also to have a decent and humane method of cremating the unclaimed dead bodies that are being brought from several hospitals and buried at Marten.