Govt gears up for e-waste management in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Carrying forward its earlier decision for e-waste management drive, the Odisha government today entered into a partnership with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), Manufacturing Association of Information Technology (MAIT) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology for control and management of e-waste in Bhubaneswar.

A workshop to this effect was organized here today involving different stake holders.

Addressing the workshop, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said cities need to be kept clean and free of waste burdens so as to make them attractive for economic activities.

“Urbanization creates more employment opportunities and we have to keep them clean through appropriate waste management plan to attract more job creators and employers to the city,” he pointed out.

Emphasizing upon awareness from the time of childhood Padhi asked the Forest & Environment department to initiate a special awareness drive in close collaboration with School & Mass Education department and higher education institutions. He also advised to make e-waste management project an economically viable option so that professional agencies take up the work in a scientific and systematic manner. He also said producers of the electronic gadgets should take up major responsibility for disposal awareness along with their sales campaign.

The chief secretary asked Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to prepare a step to step road map to tackle e-waste issues.

In his address, Development Commissioner and chairman of Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB), R Balakrishnan said e-waste management need to be taken up as a ‘defining moment & decisions’ in the history of modern nation making as it has massive consequences for the future.

Principal Secretary, Forest & Environment, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said e-waste is an important and emergent issue because of its environmental impacts. “The state government is ready to provide financial assistance for scientific management of the e-waste. The inputs from this workshop would be utilized for preparing a concrete action plan for the state,” he added.

BMC Commissioner Krishan Kumar said BMC is on its way to roll out e-waste and plastic-waste management plan along with smart city management plan. The issue has also been discussed with IFC for partnership. BMC has floated Expression of Interest (EoI) notice and engaged four environmental engineers of whom one engineer has been engaged exclusively for e-waste management.

OSPCB member secretary Debidatta Biswal said that state has already initiated various steps for e-waste management. This present workshop has been organized to workout précised work plan. As of now around 9500 eco-clubs have been formed in various educational institutions throughout the state who would be young ambassadors for the state.

It was decided that the awareness campaign would be taken up from December 15 to March 31. The impact report of the programme shall be prepared by April, 2017 for consideration of both state and Central government.