KOLKATA, 2 SEPT: The state pollution control board has lodged an FIR against a person who operated an illegal biomedical waste dump yard in Chowbaga, South 24 Parganas and used to sell the waste from several big and reputed private hospitals and nursing homes of the city as plastic scrap to another trader. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) is currently running an internal audit against the private hospitals and nursing homes whose biomedical waste was allegedly being dumped there. Mr Shyamal Adhikari, senior environment engineer (waste management cell) of the WBPCB, said that on their way to Bantala, near Koraidanga, they spotted more than 200 bags carrying medical waste dumped on a plot of land. With the help of locals, Mr Basudev Bhowmick, who had been operating the illegal dump yard, was called for cross-examination. The FIR was lodged at the Tiljala police station against him. He had obtained one bigha land at Chowbaga near Basanti Road from a local resident, Mr Benu, against a rent of Rs 700 per month. He was receiving biomedical waste from different persons whose names he declined to disclose. The waste was being received in sacks and bags carried by van rickshaw and local women were employed to retrieve syringes and other recyclable plastic items. The bags were yellow (human anatomical waste), blue (waste such as syringes and gloves), pink and black in colour. The bags carried logo of SembRamky Environmental Management Pvt, the common biomedical waste treatment facility. The syringes were being sold at Rs 40 per kilogram to a person named Mr Paritosh, a resident of Chowbaga, who sells these plastic materials to other traders. Mr Basudev Bhowmick also said that bio-medical waste is sent to Mathpukur area for sorting, sometimes in covered trucks bearing the name of Kolkata Municipal Corporation between 6 am to 10 am, the FIR at Tiljala mentions. In violation of the Biomedical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998, waste are also accumulated and sorted near the eastern side of the EM Bypass, near Kasba Golpark, Chowbagha area, and in the slums on the western and northern side of EM bypass near Kadapara. While SembRamky officials denied of dumping biomedical waste there, Mr Biswajit Mukherjee, chief law officer of WBPCB, said that the internal audit would see how bags carrying SembRamky logo were dumped there. The audit would also find the number of colour-code bags SembRamky gives to the hospitals to segregate waste.