KOCHI: The Government Medical College, Ernakulam , which is supposed to provide healthcare to the public, has been discharging wastewater without proper treatment.The sewage treatment plant ( STP ) at the medical college has not been fully functional and the public works department (PWD), which was entrusted with the renovation of the plant couldn’t complete the work even after six months.Now, the pollution control board (PCB) has rejected a proposal for a bigger STP to be constructed as part of the super specialty block, the work of which has been underway.According to officials with the Infrastructure Kerala Limited (Inkel), the nodal agency for development projects in the state, the PCB rejected the proposal for the STP plant as the medical college’s existing plant was not functioning properly and the discharge from the plant was contaminated.“The treatment process at the existing STP was being conducted in three stages. The filtration process at one of the stages has failed to function and as result, the plant has been discharging polluted water. So, we entrusted the work with the PWD six months ago. But they couldn’t do the work. Now, we have handed it over to Inkel,” said Dr V K Sreekala, principal.At the same time, officials with the PWD said they were not responsible for the delay.“The amount earmarked for the STP had to be used for installing four incinerators. We requested for additional funds to renovate the STP. But the medical college authorities entrusted the work with Inkel,” a PWD official said.The medical college has an outpatient turnout of 1,500 per day and an inpatient strength of 450-500. The STP has been discharging the polluted water into a pond at the medical college premises.The progress of other works undertaken by the PWD at the medical college has also been tardy. The Rs 4.46-crore work for renovating the existing buildings, which started in October 2017, has reached nowhere.“As per the schedule, the work should have been completed in six months. But, the PWD couldn’t make much progress even after a year,” a medical college official said.But PWD officials said the renovation works were hit by the delay in shifting patients from the wards.“The patients will have to be shifted to another ward before we begin the renovation work at a particular ward. We had brought the issue to the notice of the medical college authorities several times,” a PWD official said.The installation of an elevator at the cath lab, another work undertaken by PWD, has also been lagging behind schedule. “It was due to the changes in the design that installation was delayed. When we started the work on the elevator, the medical college authorities suggested certain changes. They wanted a bigger escalator with access from another building as well. So, we had to change its design. Now, we have started the earth-work prior to the construction of the elevator,” the PWD official said.

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