Chennai, Jun 9 (IANS): With the possibility of a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic looming large, the unhindered dumping of bio-medical waste across the suburbs of Chennai on highways and water bodies have become a major issue in Tamil Nadu. Political parties like the VCK and the BJP have raised the issue separately with Non-Governmental Organisations like Thanal and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch also coming out in protest against the dumping.

Dr Sindhu Vinod, Director of Thanal, an NGO working among school children to create environmental awareness, told IANS, "There is huge dumping of bio-medical waste in the outskirts of Chennai and this is a matter of grave concern. Bio-medical wastes like syringes, gloves, blood bags, etc are being dumped in large quantities in areas that are not much inhabited like Kelambakkam and others. We have already taken the photograph of this waste and passed it on to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board."

In the outskirts of Tambaram also, bio-medical waste is being dumped in large quantities with syringes, needles, blood bags and empty glucose bags lying scattered.

BJP state president L. Murugan, while speaking to IANS, said, "We will raise this issue of doing away with the bio-medical waste in and around Chennai and the government must immediately take action to remove this waste so that this does not turn into a place wherein the virus multiply."

Tamil Nadu, according to VCK MLA, S. Balaji has only seven companies that process bio-medical waste. Balaji said that the amount of medical waste generated during the pandemic has increased manifold. While speaking to IANS, Balaji said, "There are only seven biomedical waste processing companies in Tamil Nadu and with the high output of medical waste due to the pandemic and many hospitals don't have any agreement with the biomedical waste processing companies, these hospitals use small trucks to dump the waste along highways, sometimes this reaches to water bodies resulting in an increase in pollution. This has to be strongly condemned and I have already taken up this issue with the state health minister Ma Subramanian."

Balaji said, "In the third wave of the pandemic, experts say that the spread might be more in the rural areas and this biomedical waste being dumped in rural areas along the highways is a matter of concern and hence I have taken up this matter with the State health minister Ma Subramanian."

Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, the intellectual arm of the RSS is also trying to push the case of dumping of biomedical waste in the outskirts of Chennai. State Joint secretary of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Mahesh Krishnamoorthy told IANS, "Dumping of biomedical waste is a major issue Chennai and its outskirts are facing and there is an indiscriminate volume of biomedical waste being dumped. We have taken several photographs and videos of biomedical waste including syringes, empty glucose bottles, blood bags, etc being dumped in the highways and rural areas of Chennai. We will be sending these materials to the TN Pollution Control Board and if action is not taken, we will be meeting with the minister and other officials."