Four days after the blast at Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) biomedical waste disposal plant in Kailash crematorium premises, Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi said the corporation has asked Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) approved Passco Environment Solutions Limited to operate the plant.

The incinerator will start functioning from Wednesday. The PMC disposed the hospital waste generated on September 12 and 13 at Pimpri-Chinchwad plant. “However the capacity of the plant is falling short of 800 kg. Therefore, we had requested the MPCB to permit us to assign Passco Environment Solutions Limited to temporarily run the incinerator in Pune,” said PMC additional commissioner Machhindranath Devniker.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition Vikas Mathkari has criticised the PMC for not lodging a police complaint against the contractor Sunil Singhania for misusing PMC resources. “The illegal godown that stocked aerosol cans is barely five feet away from the crematorium run on diesel. Also, the first contract with Image India Limited in 2000 was done on stamp paper. However, in 2006, the company changed its name to Sun Enviro Management Private Limited and the contract was done on plain paper. The changes between the two contracts were not put before the standing committee or the general body for approval,” he said in a press meet.

Mathkari added that he has proofs that industrial waste from Avon Products Limited in Bhiwandi and six other companies was being disposed off at this incinerator. He further alleged that the plant was not being run at the mandatory temperature of 850 degree Celsius and the partially burnt waste was directly let out in the river. Mathkari has demanded that the PMC should immediately file a complaint against the contractor of the plant. Pardeshi has issued orders to terminate the contract with Sunil Singhania following Singhania’s arrest.