Five years after E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 was implemented across the country on May 1, 2012, the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) has finally moved a step closer to get anything and everything about e-waste in the State in a documented form.
JSPCB Member Secretary Sanjay Kumar Suman said on Wednesday that the Board had appointed a company after successful bidding process which concluded in May this year.
“We have appointed the agency for documentation and data preparation about e-waste in the State. This selection of agency has removed one of the biggest hurdles in the way of speeding up processes, as we had to have related facts and figures before us to take further course of action. I can say at this stage that now we will see things moving fast to get the State out of e-waste menace,” said Suman on Wednesday.
Though the Board had launched an awareness campaign about disposal of e-waste in a proper and scientific way right after the E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 was implemented in country in 2012, the campaign could neither maintain consistency, nor could it leave any considerable impact on those disposing e-wastes in the way organic wastes were disposed of.
“We have been using all scientific ways to dispose of e-waste since days we started using computers in big way. But now the State is on the way to witness fresh round of industrial revolution after 210 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) were signed during Global Investors’ Summit in February this year, e-waste is going to become a major threat to health in coming years and a concerted effort from the government to public is needed to combat it,” said PASA Group Director Ajay Agarwal.
lack of awareness about e-waste which includes all useless and abandoned electronic and electrical materials belonging but not limited to computer parts, mobile phone components, printers, CDs, pen drives and other things have appeared a major health threat to common people in recent years. People dispose of these items the way they dispose domestic garbage without knowing that burning such items cause death to them and those around.
