SC lawyer appalled at patients lying on floor

CUTTACK: Senior Supreme Court lawyer and environment activist MC Mehta on Sunday expressed concern over ‘poor’ patient care infrastructure and facilities at the SCB Medical here. Mehta, who was here to take part in the Golden jubilee celebrations of the Orissa State Bar Council, visited the premier medical along with the High Court- appointed Advocates Committee on healthcare. As he visited different departments, he was appalled at the sight of patients lying on the floors in the New Medicine Department due to non-availability of beds. He urged the Government and medical authorities to take steps to improve the infrastructure considering the increasing load of patients. Lawyer and committee members PR Das, Tarananda Patnaik and Dr PK Pradhan also went round the biomedical waste plant site to assess the sewage disposal, sanitation and biomedical waste management practices in the medical and expressed their satisfaction. Mehta, incidentally, has a past connection with the SCB and Cuttack City. He had raised the issue of gross pollution of Taladanda Canal due to the discharge of sewage and biomedical waste by the medical and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and its impact on the residents. His PIL in the Orissa High Court in 1992 had led to a landmark judgment. Discharge of waste and effluents into the canal was stopped after the judgment.