The Hindu           07.02.2011

Engineering students help in cleaning up Chamundi hills

For a cause: Students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering help in cleaning Chamundi Hills in Mysore on Sunday. — PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Students of the Vidya Vardhaka College of Engineering in the city lent a helping hand in cleaning up Chamundi Hills and removed a large amount of garbage from the area.

Nearly 200 students of the college participated in the effort held as part of the Entrepreneurship Week-2011. The participants hit the hills at the crack of dawn and Mayor Sandesh Swamy, corporators, health officials from the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) were among those who were present and assisted the student community in the voluntary work.

Though Chamundi Hills has been declared a no-pastic zone, the tourist and pilgrim rush generates large amount of garbage, most of which is not disposed. In addition, there is a tendency among travellers to dispose large chunks of waste material like beer cans and plastic bottles that tend to accumulate and degenerate.

The garbage was collected in large sacks and disposed off in a truck to the sewage farm in the city. ‘Clean Chamundi Hills' is a regular event organised by various environmental groups and educational institutions and has helped reduce pollution to a large extent. Chamundi Hills is stated to be ecologically sensitive and fragile and is under constant stress of growing urbanisation and encroachment. Such drives help bring the issue into focus.

The Hindu       03.01.2011

e-waste management facility in State soon

The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) along with the State Information Technology Department is actively pursuing a proposal to set up an e-waste management facility in the State. The proposal, which is in its early stages, aims at collection, segregation, recycling, and disposal of e-waste.

“The possibility of setting up such a facility under the public private partnership (PPP) model is being considered. Right now we are in the process of identifying generators of e-waste in the State and quantifying the volume of waste generated,” PCB chairman K. Sajeevan told The Hindu. NGOs in this field are also participating in the endeavour.

In the first phase of the project, workshops on e-waste management would be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, and Kozhikode in January, he said. The proposal would be carried forward based on ideas evolving out of these workshops, Mr. Sajeevan said.

“The most important thing is to have a critical model to make it viable and feasible. The PCB is actually looking at the right model for doing the project,” Ajay Kumar, who was till recently the Principal Information Technology Secretary to the State government, said.

He was optimistic about the project turning a reality within two years once that happened.

Mr. Sajeevan, however, declined to mention any time schedule. He said the facility would be a centralised one as any decentralised arrangement would not be feasible. Mr. Sajeevan said it was too early to decide on the location of the project.

At present, the State does not have any e-waste management facility. Mr. Sajeevan said that according to studies conducted by NGOs functioning in the area, a large quantity of e-waste was being generated in the State warranting a scientific management facility.

According to a notification of the Union government's Department of Information Technology dated September this year, there were only 16 recognised e-waste re-processors across the country with environmentally-sound management facilities.