Firm handling medical waste from RG Kar, other hospitals did not have treatment plant: CBI official

 According to a former bureaucrat, the company claims it will set up the requisite infrastructure within four months of getting clearance from the environment department

PTI, Calcutta, 26.09.24 : The CBI probe into alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital found that the firm handling the medical waste of the hospital and several other state-run medical establishments did not have a single treatment plant, an official of the agency said on Thursday.

The firm, which was not very well known, was awarded the contract in 2019.

Before its contract was terminated by the West Bengal government in 2023 for flouting the rules, the company started operating from the premises of one of its investors, a business family from Calcutta, the CBI official said.

A source in the state government said that later, the firm tied up with a Delhi-based company which ran a treatment plant in Uttar Pradesh, and won back the contract.

Every day, used syringes, rubber gloves, hand gloves and saline bottles weighing around 500-600 kg used to be sent to the firm for treatment, an official at the hospital said.

According to a former bureaucrat, the company was granted the contract as per the rules and it claimed it would set up the requisite infrastructure within four months of getting clearance from the environment department.

Sources said, the firm, however, did not build the requisite infrastructure.

State Health Secretary NS Nigam did not respond to repeated calls for a comment on the matter.