A mattress filled with used and discarded masks instead of cotton or other material was busted by police in a mattress-making factory in Jalgaon. They also recovered piles of masks in the factory. The case has been registered against the owner of the unit.

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) officials were informed about the alleged racket carried out at the mattress center.

"When the officials visited the premises of the factory in Kusumba village of MIDC, they found a mattress being stuffed with used masks," said Additional Superintendent of Police Chandrakant Gawali.

"A case was registered against the factory owner, Amjad Ahmed Mansoori. The police are now probing the involvement of others in the racket," said Mr. Gawali.

The police then set on fire the piles of used masks lying around the premises according to the prescribed norms.

The mask production in the country has hiked up to 1.5 crore units a day capacity in March 2020. The pandemic has burdened India`s already stressed waste management system. It generated over 18,000 tonnes of Covid-19 related bio-medical waste between June and September 2020 alone, including gloves and face masks, according to Central Pollution Control Board data.

India is experiencing a ferocious second wave of the pandemic, with some 1.68 lakh new cases of infection reported yesterday in the highest day surge. Maharashtra alone reported 63,294 of these, with 349 deaths.

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