NEW DELHI: With nearly 17 lakh tonnes of e-waste generated annually in the country, a parliamentary standing committee has recommended brining a separate legislation on e-waste handling and management instead of handling it under the Environment Protection Act.
The Committee on subordinate legislation in its report on Rules on E-Waste Management tables in Lok Sabha said the legislation will help to tackle issue of e-waste handling and management in an effective and meaningful manner.
It further said that such legislation may prescribe for establishment of a central authority or central public sector undertaking having experts from IT field and other technical domains possessing knowledge of e-waste disposal, management and recycling techniques and its own e-waste collection centre or recycling plants with state-of-art technologies, in all major cities of the country.
“The law should make it mandatory that the e-waste generated from various government departments all over the country as well as by entities and individuals, big or small industrials houses, educational institutions shall be deposited at the designated collection centre of the PSU,” it said.
The committee was of the view that if a government body is entrusted with this job it will be done in a methodical and safe manner and will ensure that e-waste does not create environmental pollution.
“The rules and regulations in this regard can be framed accordingly so that a beginning is made in the country,” it added.
The committee noted that unlike the management and handling of other environmental pollution areas concerning air, water, hazardous waste, the management of e-waste is a highly specialized field which required high level of technical knowledge, expertise and skilled manpower.
It further observed that, the present set up of management of e-waste under the EPA, 1986 and the rules frames there under have failed to yield any tangible results.