Questions raised over hospital dustbin procurement in Bihar

A video report on the purchase of medical dustbins for hospitals across Bihar has triggered a row after it went viral on social media. Described in the report as a “scam worth several crores of rupees” and allegedly occurring during the tenure of the previous State Health Minister Mangal Pandey, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) called the ruling BJP “trash bin eaters”.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s Singapore-based daughter, Rohini Acharya, took a jibe in a post on social media asking, “Is it a box to keep garbage in or a new gimmick to empty the government’s treasury?”.

According to the report, the Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL) had purchased specialised hospital waste dustbins during the previous NDA regime headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in which an alleged scam of over ₹300 crore had happened.

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Mr. Pandey, a resident of the Siwan district of Bihar, has been winning Assembly elections from the same seat in the BJP ticket. Mr. Pandey could not be reached till the filing of the report. The State government has not issued an official clarification regarding the alleged dustbin scam yet.

The report alleged that 75-litre plastic dustbins, priced between ₹1,000 and ₹1,500 in the market, were purchased at ₹15,490 each, while 45-litre dustbins were procured at ₹11,000 apiece despite having an alleged market price of ₹700. According to the report, the purchases made for hospitals across Bihar point to an alleged scam exceeding ₹300 crore, a figure that it said could rise to nearly ₹700 crore.

After the NDA government headed by Samrat Choudhary assumed office on April 15, 2026, and expanded the Cabinet on May 7, 2026, Nishant Kumar, son of former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was inducted as the State’s Health Minister.

However, a BMSICL employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the allegations as “rubbish and crap”, saying the procured dustbins were “high-temperature- and heat-resistant specialised plastic containers designed for use with advanced hospital microwave-based medical waste treatment systems, along with medical-grade disposable liners”.

Another BMSICL employee, who also requested anonymity, said there was “a significant difference between ordinary dustbins and those procured for hospitals”. According to the employee, the prices reflected the technical specifications required for medical-grade biomedical waste management and factored in tender conditions, order volumes, transportation, installation, applicable taxes and other procurement-related costs, rather than the cost of conventional plastic bins available in the retail market.

Meanwhile, the Opposition RJD, in a post on social media on Saturday (August 15, 2026), said, “Bihar’s corrupt government bought a ₹500 dustbin for ₹ 15,490 and pulled off a scam worth ₹617 crore. The corruption that BJP does is of a sattvic (pure and clean) nature because the corrupt and the beneficiaries have so much social capital that no one calls them “trash bin eaters”. In an apparent reference to Mr. Pandey’s picture, the post further said, “In the picture is Mangal Pandey ji, who set the health department ablaze and cleaned up the dustbin itself.”

Targeting the NDA government in Bihar, Ms. Acharya wrote in a post on X on August 11, 2026, “Another scam of the Samrat government. Even the dustbin has become invaluable. In Bihar, even the dustbin has become a VVIP!! A dustbin whose price is being quoted at ₹1,500 has been purchased for 15,000 — meaning the trash can is small, but the bill is ten times bigger!!”