Delhi acts to prevent IT hazards

NEW DELHI: Getting rid of unwanted IT infrastructure is possibly one of the most important concerns plaguing IT decision makers in most organizations. This concern is primarily driven by the fact that after more than 24 to 36 months, PCs lose nearly all their economic value. Therefore, experts opine that governments being one of the largest users of IT infrastructure, must formulate an 'asset-disposition program' to tackle the issue.

The Delhi government is possibly one of the few governments, which has seriously considered the hazards of IT waste and has issued a policy focused on condemnation of IT equipment and its disposal.

"There is the perception that all that equipment still has some value. In a lot of cases, there is no value. Organizations that want to change old equipment must consider the risks of disposing machines that are lethal repositories of toxins such as lead, mercury, and cadmium," noted government of national capital territory of Delhi department of IT and department of administrative reforms secretary, Prakash Kumar.

With significant quantities of lead, mercury, cadmium, and other hazardous substances in computers and television sets, a large quantity of electronic waste is ending up in the nation's landfills.

"As the equipment piles up in landfills, so does the environmental risk. Some experts believe that lead from computers and other electronic machinery will enter the waste stream in the next decade, posing what many believe is a serious threat of 'toxic runoff'. Having a condemnation policy is the first step towards ensuring proper usage of IT equipment. Our policy is targeted at all the departments, autonomous bodies/local bodies and PSUs working under government of NCT of Delhi," he added.

The policy for condemnation of IT equipment from Delhi government has taken into consideration IT equipment like — servers, PCs, dumb terminals, printers, UPS, laptops, packaged software and even technical books and manuals pertaining to hardware and software being condemned.

"We have even mentioned that the condemned equipment can also be used for areas like research project, training at different poly-techniques or government schools and if possible, this condemned equipment can also be sold to different vendors under buy back scheme," Kumar informed.

With India looking at bettering its IT infrastructure local governments in the nation have noticed this new waste-disposal problem emerging and have begun to raise red flags. The questions being raised are- should local government be straddled with this cost? Shouldn't manufacturers be involved?

The question of manufacturer responsibility is now coming to the forefront. As the volume of electronic waste continues to grow, solutions for its disposal become increasingly imperative. Some State governments and local bodies are taking initiatives on the issue, and the electronics industry will now have to show it's willingness to find a solution to the problem.