RG Kar Case: Firm Handling Medical Waste Bagged Govt Contract Without Treatment Plant, Says Report

The CBI is investigating the firm managing the sale and disposal of biomedical waste from government hospitals in West Bengal.

RG Kar Medical College Hospital became the epicentre of a political storm after the rape and murder of a medical intern there last month. (Image: PTI File)

Source : PTI

The sale and disposal of biomedical waste from government hospitals in West Bengal is reportedly under the scrutiny of the Central Bureau of Investigation (ABI) in its probe into the alleged corruption case at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College Hospital, where a trainee doctor was brutally raped and murdered last month.

The company under the lense is called SNG Envirosolutions, which over the grew up to handle around 70 per cent of waste from government hospitals across West Bengal, including from RG Kar, without owning a single waste treatment plant for the longest time, violating the terms of its contract, according to a report by Indian Express. 

The company is reportedly owned by Kolkata businessman SP Singh, It first won the contract for managing medical waste from 9 zones in 2019, by tying up with Delhi-based Spectrum Waste Solutions which owned a treatment plant in UP. As per the report, the contract mandated that SP Singh set up nine treatment plants — one in each zone — in four months from the time it obtained Environment Clearances (EC) for construction.

Instead, SNG Envirosolutions reportedly struck a deal with Hyderabad-based Medicare Environment Management, the company that got the contract for the remaining 30 per cent of government hospital waste. There are an estimated 80,000 government hospital beds across West Bengal and SNG collected tonnes of hospital waste daily for 44 months relying on a sub-contract with its rival. 

The government reportedly terminated SNG’s contract in June 2023, when the sub-contractor pulled out. As per the Indian Express report, SNG set up its first treatment plant in the state within three months and was awarded a fresh contract. Rajiva Sinha, who was the state’s Health Secretary when SNG won the contract, told IE that “everything went by the book”. 

Sinha added that the rules allowed companies without treatment plants to get contracts, “provided they set up the facilities within the prescribed deadline of four months from getting environmental clearance (EC).” SNG reportedly did not complete the EC application process for years.

When quizzed about this, Sinha said: “If a company violated any condition later, my successors in the Health (department) must have taken appropriate steps.”

The report highlighted that Sinha, who is currently the state's Election Commissioner at the time, was Calcutta Environment Improvement Project director in 2006 when SNG Mercantile, another company owned by SP Singh, was hired as a consultant for a project funded by the Asian Development Bank. Singh was also part of a state business delegation to Italy led by Sinha.

Meanwhile, Singh while talking to IE, blamed  Covid for the delay in setting up waste treatment plants. “We took serious losses after providing critical waste disposal services during Covid after we won the bid following every rule. This was a genuine joint venture and the partners paid equally for the bank guarantee,” Singh told The Indian Express.

However, as per the report, soon after the bid, Singh got personal ownership in the joint venture through a web of transactions and reduced his consortium partners’ stakes.