Over 350 clinics and hospitals can face closure if they fail to apply for required permissions for disposal of biomedical waste from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB). The board has issued 350 show-cause notices to individual clinics, small and big hospitals for not applying for authorization and consent to operate under the water act and the air act for disposal of biomedical waste, as per the chairman of the board Ganesh Shetgaonkar.

Shetgaonkar said that most clinics and hospitals have failed to file their returns before the board giving details about the biomedical waste generated by them. He further said that the last date to file returns is June 30 every year. The show-cause notices have been issued under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act.

For Panaji and Vasco, the board has authorized a service provider to collect and dispose biomedical waste generated at Goa Medical College. The rest of the state’s hospitals and clinics dispose their biomedical waste in their own facilities.

On Monday, the board held a meeting with doctors to explain the procedure to apply for the permissions online. In the meeting, chairman biomedical waste disposal cell, IMA-Goa, Dr Shekhar Salkar asked GSPCB to reach an interim agreement for biomedical waste management via service providers for the rest of the state, too, as done in Panaji and Vasco, because some healthcare facilities are not able to implement on site management due to various restraints.