Srinagar, Jan 22 (KNO): Private diagnostic laboratories in Srinagar have raised serious concerns over what they describe as arbitrary and excessive sanitation and pollution-related charges, warning that the mounting financial burden is pushing many small laboratories to the brink of closure.
The Kashmir Private Diagnostic Centres Association (KPDCA) has now sought the urgent intervention of Minister for Health Sakeena Itoo, demanding immediate relief and a rollback of what they term as “unaffordable and unjustified” fees.
According to the association, the sanitation fee imposed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) was increased manifold in 2019, with no corresponding improvement in services.
Before September 2019, diagnostic laboratories were paying around Rs 1,800 annually as sanitation charges. However, a revised tariff issued on September 18, 2019, fixed the sanitation fee at Rs 2,000 per month, amounting to Rs 24,000 per annum, irrespective of the size or scale of the laboratory, the association said.
“The sanitation fee has effectively been increased more than tenfold at a time when our businesses were already battered by economic slowdown,” a member of the delegation representing diagnostic labs told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO). “For small labs earning only a few thousand rupees per month, this is nothing short of financial strangulation.”
The association has questioned the logic behind charging diagnostic centres hefty sanitation fees when most of their waste is already being handled by licensed biomedical waste management companies.
“Our major waste is biomedical, not household garbage,” said Rouf Rangrez, State President of KPDCA. “We already pay around Rs 16,500 annually to biomedical waste handlers—Rs 7,000 as collection charges and Rs 800 per month as service fee. Despite this, SMC charges us another Rs 24,000 annually. We are effectively paying twice for the same service.”
Rangrez further questioned what additional services the municipal corporation is providing to justify such charges. “If our biomedical waste is collected by a Lassipora-based agency, what extra sanitation service is SMC giving us?” he asked.
The association has also highlighted the imposition of pollution control fees, stating that before 2019, Kashmir enjoyed certain exemptions that protected small healthcare establishments from excessive compliance costs.
“Today, diagnostic centres are forced to pay more than Rs 13,000 annually to the Pollution Control Department, without receiving any tangible service in return,” the association stated in a representation. “We request the government to reconsider and restore the earlier exemptions that were in place before 2019.”
KPDCA has pointed out that diagnostic laboratories in other states and Union Territories pay significantly lower sanitation charges.
“In states like Punjab, Goa, and Himachal Pradesh, labs pay barely Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 annually as a sanitation fee,” Rangrez said. “Why is Jammu and Kashmir being singled out and asked to pay as much as Rs 36,000 per year under different municipal heads?”
He said that earlier, diagnostic units were paying around Rs 2,400 annually as municipal charges, which have now increased to an unaffordable level post-2019. “This rule seems to apply only to J&K. Elsewhere, the charges are nominal,” Rangrez added.
The association has appealed to the Health Minister to intervene and address the grievances of diagnostic centres, many of which cater to low-income patients.
“We are not big corporate hospitals. We are small diagnostic units serving neighbourhoods,” the association said. “If these charges are not rationalised, many labs will be forced to shut down, directly impacting public healthcare.”
The diagnostic centres have urged the government to reassess sanitation and pollution fees, rationalise charges based on lab size and waste generation, and ensure that fees are linked to actual services provided.
“We hope the minister will take a serious look at the issue and put an end to our grievances once and for all,” the association said, expressing optimism for a favourable response—(KNO)