E-Paper
Chandigarh education department sells e-waste from schools for ₹36 lakh
Officials said that disposal of e-waste is a systematic process and only specialised firms can participate in its tendering
UT education department has alloted a ₹36 lakh tender for the sale of e-waste lying in government schools. The sale will be undertaken by the end of March through the government e-marketplace (GeM) portal.
As per officials, the removal of the e-waste was pursuant to the Swachhata Abhiyan launched by the prime minister. Officials said that disposal of e-waste is a systematic process and only specialised firms can participate in its tendering. The items will now be recycled.
These include 901 computers which includes the full set of monitor, keyboard, CPU and mouse, 928 monitors, 1,013 CPUs, 1,406 keyboards, 121 typewriters, 1152 kg of UPS, 483 kg of batteries among other items. There are 87 total categories of items. Currently, all of these have been stored in the basement of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10. The items will be sent away after the academic year gets over and the school shuts down at the end of the month.
As per officials, the products were classified as per guidelines for disposal of obsolete/unusable IT and electronics equipment issued by the UT administration in 2014. As per this, items like printer cartridges and DVDs become immediately obsolete while maximum life is for electronic items like TVs, DVD players and digital cameras which have a productive life of 7 years and end of life after 10 years.
As per the policy, for end of life equipment, once declared e-waste, the items are disposed off with the e-waste collector/dismantler/recycler registered by the pollution control boards/committees as per the provisions made under the e-Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011. The funds of the sale will however go to the UT department of information technology.
Speaking about this, director school education (DSE) Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said, “We are happy that the waste is finally being cleared. Many schools had locked rooms and stores filled with obsolete computers which didn’t work. Now this space can be utilised again.”
Schools to get around 1,000 new computers
Meanwhile, the UT education department has also allotted a tender to purchase new computers for the government schools. As per a circular by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), there must be atleast 40 computers in each school in working condition. This will now be fulfilled with the department acquiring around 1,000 new computers.
As per officials, the tender has been awarded to Dell, and it will feature specialised computers with the CPU attached behind the monitor for the cost of ₹40,000 per computer.
