1. This Original Application (hereinafter referred to as ‘OA’) was registered by taking Suo Motu cognizance by Tribunal under Section 14 and 15 of National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as ‘NGT Act, 2010’) on a letter petition dated 19.07.2022 received from Sh. Rahul Solanki S/o Salam Solanki, R/o Garhi Thana Bishtan, District Khargaon, Madhya Pradesh.

2. The complainant said that he had visited Udaipur and found that Biomedical Waste is being burnt in open and also being dumped at different places in most illegal manner. A number of photographs were appended to complaint showing black smoke coming from chimney, dumping of bio-medical waste, etc. It is said that bio-medical waste handling is being undertaken by M/s Envison Enviro Engineering Pvt. Ltd, Udaipur but as a matter of fact, it is not handling and treating biomedical waste properly and in accordance with Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules 2016 (hereinafter referred to as ‘BMWM Rules, 2016’) but either burning the same in open space or dumping haphazardly and burning in ordinary temperature emitting black smoke which is evident from photograph appended to complaint.

3. Tribunal found it appropriate to obtain a factual report vide order dated 22.02.2023 and hence constituted a Joint Committee comprising Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘RSPCB’) and District Magistrate, Udaipur.

4. The Joint Committee has submitted report vide Email dated 28.03.2023 stating that inspection of the site was conducted on 18.03.2023. It is pointed out that making similar complaint against M/s Envison Enviro Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Udaipur, OA 74 of 2021(CZ) Kailash Kumar Changani Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors was filed which was disposed of vide order dated 11.05.2022. It was alleged in the OA that M/s Envison Enviro Engineering Pvt. Ltd (hereinafter referred to as ‘CBWTF’) is not properly operating in respect of collection, transportation, treatment and processing of bio-medical waste; it is dumping the waste on open land i.e. at Balecha dumping ground Udaipur and heaps of untreated bio medical waste are lying at dumping ground etc. The complaint was examined by Tribunal by calling for a factual report from a Joint Committee comprising Central Pollution Control Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CPCB’), representative of RSPCB and Chief Medical Officer, Udaipur. The Committee submitted report which was considered in detail in the order dated 11.05.2022 and ultimately Tribunal came to the conclusion that BMWM Rules 2016 are being strictly complied with and nothing has been reported by RSPCB and Municipal Corporation, Udaipur to show any violation of above rules. Tribunal in para 33 of the judgement held that the allegations leveled by applicant are baseless. However, on precautionary principle, Tribunal found it appropriate to issue certain directions. We reproduce extract of the operative part of the order contained in para 33 and 34, as under:

“33. In view of the above facts, the allegations as leveled by the applicant are not tenable and baseless. However, for proper disposal of Bio Medical Waste, we direct as follows: (i) The respondents are directed to follow the guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board which was communicated vide order dated 21.07.2020 and strict action should be initiated for noncompliance of the guidelines with reference to disposal of materials collected, used and thrown in COVID-19. (ii) The Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board is directed to have a strict vigil to ensure the compliance of the Bio-Medical Waste Rules and in case it is found that there is a violation of the rules, strict action should be initiated including calculation of environmental compensation and its recovery according to law.

34. With the above observations, the Original Application is finally disposed of"

5. Further this very applicant Rahul Solanki filed OA 695 of 2022, Rahul Solanki Vs. State of Rajasthan before Principal Bench making a similar complaint against M/s Envison Enviro Engineering Pvt. Ltd where upon again Tribunal sought a factual report and found that there was no violation on the part of the concerned proponent. Tribunal referred to its earlier order dated 11.05.2022 passed in OA 74 of 2021(CZ) Kailash Kumar Changani Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. and did not find any occasion to pass any further order. Application was disposed vide order dated 06.03.2023. We reproduce the entire order as under:

“1. Grievance in this application is against violation of environmental norms in operation of bio-medical waste facility by N Vision Enviro Engineers Pvt. Ltd at village Umarda, Udaipur, Rajasthan. According to the applicant, there is unregulated burning of waste in open and there are no safeguards against toxic emissions generated in the plant.

2. Vide order dated 09.11.2022, the Tribunal sought a factual report in the matter from State PCB.

3. Accordingly, report dated 27.01.2023 has been filed inter-alia stating that no specific non compliance was found. It is further stated that the same issue has been earlier dealt with by Central Zonal Bench of this Tribunal in O.A No. 74/2021, Kailash Kumar Chagnani v. State of Rajasthan& Ors. vide order dated 11.05.2022.

4. In view of above, no further order appears to be necessary at this stage

The Application is disposed of."

6. Without disclosing the fact that this very applicant has already approached this Tribunal in OA 695/2022(PB) wherein complaint was found incorrect, this letter petition was submitted where upon OA has been registered Suo Motu and cognizance has been taken by this Tribunal.

7. In the factual report submitted by Joint Committee again observations are that the complaint is incorrect. The observations and findings of Joint Committee are reproduced as under:

“Observations during the course of inspection in reference to compliance of CTO conditions:

The unit was commissioned in the year 2005 i.e. prior to the ElA Notification dated 14.09.2006 and hence no EC was required. However, CTE was granted by the RSPCB on dated 24.03.2005.

A. At the time of visit CBWTF was operational at full capacity. As per consent, the unit is having 50 kg/hr capacity incinerator, 50 kg/cycle autoclave and shredders of 50 kg/Hr. As per annual report submitted by the CBWTF, total health care facility (HCF) being covered is 1248 HCFs (09 districts) and on average basis, 1289 kg waste collected per day in which 800 to 900 kg waste is incinerable category (yellow) and remaining is recyclable (red) and sharp waste and this much quantity will take 16-18 Hr for incineration. The BMW present at the site were Yellow: 246 Kg, Red: 9 Kg, White: 2 Kg and Blue: 78 Kg.

Yellow category includes: Human Anatomical Waste, Animal Anatomical Waste, items contaminated with blood, body fluids like dressings, plaster casts, cotton swabs and bags containing residual or discarded blood and blood components, discarded linen, mattresses, beddings contaminated with blood or body fluid, blood bags, laboratory cultures, stocks or specimens of micro organisms, or attenuated vaccines, human and animal cell cultures used in research etc.

Red category includes: Wastes generated from disposable items such as tubing, bottles, intravenous tubes and sets, urine bags, syringes, gloves and other plastic wastes.

White category includes: Needles, syringes with fixed needles, needles from needle tip cutter or burner, scalpels, blades, or any other contaminated sharp object that may cause puncture and cuts. This includes used, discarded and contaminated metal sharps.

Blue category includes: Metallic Body Implants and broken or discarded and contaminated glass including medicine vials and ampoules except those contaminated with cytotoxic wastes.

B. The recyclable waste is autoclaved followed by shredder. The unit has also provided concrete make sharp pit for disposable of metal sharp and needles.

C. The waste is collected from the member HCFs by the 10 dedicated GPS enabled registered vehicles and every day the collection starts in the morning and completed in the evening. The collected waste is treated / incinerated same day.

D. The incinerator is found equipped with Air Pollution Control Device (APCD) which comprises ventury scrubber, demister attached with 30 meter stack. The water is used as the medium in ventury scrubber to suppress the dust emission from laden flue gas. The dust emission trapped in the water is collected as sludge in the settling tank.

E. For the treatment of waste water generated from floor washing, vehicle washing and scrubber, the unit has provided 5 KL capacity ETP which comprised of Oil and Grease trap, Chemical dosing tank, coagulation Chamber, Primary Settling Tank, secondary settling Tank, Pressure Sand Filter & Activated Carbon Filter and Disinfection Tank. Treated water is stored in over head tank and further used in horticulture and gardening purpose

F. The unit has provided DG sets for emergency operation of plant and machinery in case of power supply failure.

G. The temperature of primary chamber and secondary chamber was observed 851°C and 1053°C respectively.

H. Disposal of BMW was as per norms.

I. Online Continuous Monitoring system was found operational and according to OCEMS combustion efficiency of incinerator was found 99% and PM value - 45 mg/m for the emission of stack. Both the parameters were found within prescribed limits as stipulated in consent to operate issued by RSPCB.

J. Effluent treatment plant was found operational and no discharge of treated / untreated waste water outside the premises.

K. For the control of air pollution unit has installed scrubber and stack height (30 m) found as per rule.

L. Incineration ash and ETP sludge (after drying and then incinerated in the incinerator) is being to Rajasthan Waste Management Project (CSTWDF - RAMKY) for disposal of hazardous waste. That the State Board has granted consent to operate to M/s En Vision

Enviro Engineers (P) Ltd. Umarda Tehsil-Girwa, District- Udaipur vide letter dated 15.05.2018 having validity up to 31.03.2023 for Bio Medical Waste Treatment and Disposal- 2,000.0 Kg/ Day, Incineration- 400.0 Kg/Day, Incineration Ash- 30.0 Kg/Day & Authorization on 15.05.2018 for operation of the CBWTDF with validity up to 31.03.2023.

Verification of Complaint: As per the allegations of the complainant, the bio-medical waste is being burnt in open and also being dumped at different places in most illegal manner. However, during the inspection, no open burning of waste was found (Photographs enclosed) and the bio-medical waste received was stored in segregated areas of yellow, red etc. waste and not found to be littered or illegally disposed haphazardly.

During the course of inspection, Monitoring of stack attached with incinerator and Ambient Air Quality was conducted. No specific noncompliance was observed and also results in analysis report of Air samples were found within prescribed and permissible limits. The photo copy of the analysis reports are annexed herewith and marked as Annexure-R/1.

So far as the black smoke from chimney is concerned, it is quite possible that during firing of the unit for a few minutes the black smoke may be visible and the complainant took. pictures at the same time. However, the monitoring of stack is not conducted for one or two minutes only but 1000 litre of flue gas is required to be passed through thimble and as per calculation, the stack monitoring was conducted around 35 minutes to have isokinetic conditions and even if during that time, black smoke comes for 1-2 minutes, it is averaged and the standard are maintained.

The unit has also installed OCEMS and results are regularly depicted on the RSPCB Server and checked regularly. So far as the online continuous emission monitoring data which is available on web server is concerned, it was examined and it was found that in the past three months there are no exceedances from the standards of stack emissions. Also the temperature of primary chamber and secondary chamber was observed 851°C and 1053°C respectively which is as per the requirement i.e. 900°C + 50°C and 1100°C ‡ 50°C respectively and hence the bio-medical waste is not burnt at ordinary temperature but at the required temperature. Hence, the complaint is not substantiated.

The transportation of BMW from the generator health care facilities to the disposal facility (CBWTDF) is carried by 10 GPS enabled registered vehicles to ensure that BMW is not haphazardly disposed and record of the same kept at HCFs and CBWTDF for cross verification and was matched during visit.

Looking to the above, it was found that the complaint is not sustainable and strict vigil on the unit shall be kept in future too.”

8. We are at pain to observe that in important jurisdiction involving protection of environment a person claiming himself to be a public spirited environmentalist may continuously make complaint on frivolous allegations and has the audacity of concealment of the fact that earlier he had approached Tribunal but failed. This amounts to taking advantage of indulgence granted by this Tribunal in the zeal of protection of environment though such scrupulous persons are taking undue advantage by filing frivolous complaints. This attitude of the persons like the present applicant is condemnable and cannot be appreciated.

9. We direct Registry that in future, if any, complaint is received from this applicant, the matter should be processed after verifying whether applicant has earlier approached this Tribunal or not and giving all the particulars of the earlier proceedings, if any.

10. Initially, we were inclined to impose cost upon the complainant for filing a frivolous complaint but taking a lenient view we give a warning to the applicant not to indulge in such proceedings by filing frivolous complaint before the Tribunal, in future, on an assurance tendered by his counsel.

11. With the above direction/observations, we dismiss this OA.