Two companies -- city-based Thermax Ltd and a Bangalore company -- Diffusion Technologies are bidding for the sale of incinerators to the cantonment board. Their bids are similar for the disposal of bio-medical waste at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB).

Significantly, the PCB decision is likely affect the other civic bodies and hence the controversy. Even as the Bangalore-based company has quoted Rs. 22 lakh as compared to Rs. 32 lakh model of Thermax, the latter is crying foul. It claims that irrespective of the recent and clear government gazette on bio-medical waste management, the Bangalore-based company has been quoting for a model of incinerator (PD series) at different places with different configurations for the same applications and yet conforming to the same norms.

In a statement issued to the cantonment board, the company officials alleged that there was no uniformity in their offers and charged DiffusionTechnologies of misguiding the clients.

The government gazette has directed all hospitals in the country to install incinerators for the disposal of bio-medical wastes before the 2002 for areas with a population less than 30 lakh and December 1999 for areas with a population above 30 lakh. Thermax officials alleged that PD series of incinerators were not designed for hospital wastes and moreover, certificates issued by various pollution control boards in the country were before the government gazette of 1998.

Should the matter be put to vote before the board, the Thermax officials have decided to urge the board to defer the decision and ask for a technical evaluation.