From http://www.asianage.com/india/ex-medical-officer-gets-jail-over-Waste-disposal-005 In a landmark judgment, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate court Jagatsinghpur on Wednesday awarded six-month imprisonment to former additional district medical officer Nityananda Panda for failure in disposal of Hospital waste and violation of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. In his verdict on Tuesday, the SDJM Alekh Kumar Pradhan also imposed a penalty of `50,000 on Panda and further one-month in prison in case he fails to deposit the penalty. Besides, the court also slapped a penalty of `50,000 on the authorities of the district headquarters hospital. The directive of the court came at the end of hearing in a criminal case filed by the Orissa State Pollution Control Board against Dr Panda. It may be mentioned that the Orissa high court in 2009 had asked the OSPCB to register criminal cases against the medical authorities for improper waste disposal management in gross violation of Environment (Protection) Rules. Acting on the directive of the court, the board had given provisional authorisation for one year to the Jagatsinghpur hospital for disposal of waste. However, the board during its inspection of the hospital on April 4, 2010, found gross irregularities in waste management by the hospital authorities. Taking strong exception to the lackadaisical attitude of the hospital authorities, the board had issued a show cause notice to them on May 1, 2010.