This independent agency has its plant in the Bhatar area to treat biomedical waste collected from member dispensaries, laboratories and hospitals.

Dalal said, “We have 2,000 registered members in Surat, which has a population of around 40 lakh.”

It was only recently that kilos of untreated biomedical waste were recovered from Surat city.

Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) had issued advisory letters to all dispensaries, laboratories and hospitals in the city asking them to take measures to ensure that biomedical waste generated at their places is disposed of safely at the Bhatar treatment plant.

The agency collects biomedical waste deposited by private practitioners, laboratories and other hospitals at 28 healthcare centres of the Surat Municipal Corporation from where it is sent to the treatment plant.

Dalal said:“We take a nominal charge depending on the weight of the biomedical waste collected.”

The company charges Rs 1,500 from member hospitals and Rs 1,000 from private practitioners. Dalal said the money collected from the members is only the security deposit.

He, however, added that many unregistered doctors in the city dispose of untreated biomedical waste in the SMC garbage containers.

Dr Chandrash Jardosh, a member of the Indian Medical Association, Surat, said, “We have around 1,700 registered doctors and all of them have allopathic degrees.”

He added:“In the past, we caught many quacks from the slums in Udhna, Limbayat, Sachin Pandesara, Unn and Katargam. But all of them shifted their clinics to other places after the raids.”