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NGO Offers to Pick up E-waste from Your Door

Thursday, 30 January 2014 07:22 administrator
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The New Indian Express              30.01.2014

NGO Offers to Pick up E-waste from Your Door

City Express spoke to a few Bangaloreans about what they do with the e-waste at home, especially gadgets and gizmos they can’t exchange easily.
City Express spoke to a few Bangaloreans about what they do with the e-waste at home, especially gadgets and gizmos they can’t exchange easily.

A Bangalorean from a middle-income household generates 21 kg of e-waste a year, according to a 2012 survey conducted by E-Parisaraa.

Much of this goes into the informal sector, with only about 10 per cent making it to the formal recycling centres.

According to Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP), an international initiative to develop solutions for electrical and electronic waste problems, every Indian generates 2.25 kg of e-waste a year. And keeping our population in mind, this is no small number. The initiative’s forecast states that the amount of electronic waste produced globally is set to grow by 33 per cent between 2012 and 2017.

In Bangalore, however, certain groups are now trying to turn things around, to minimise the dangers of e-waste pollution.

“I guess people are still cautious about e-waste in this city. They don’t really know what to do with it, yet. But from my experience, I’ve seen that people here are quite open to discussions about it and when given an accessible process, they are ready to take care of their e-waste in a scientific method. The whole idea is to make things easily available, because no one is going to make a trip to say, Peenya to handover a couple of old phones or an old television set,” says David SR, president, E-Cure, an NGO working in the e-waste sector, which seeks to create awareness among both households and organisations.

It has partnered with a recyclist in Peenya and facilitates disposing of e-waste generated by households across Bangalore. They collect the e-waste from various households and organisations and then hand it over to the recyclist. The money that is generated from this is then redirected into educating orphan girl children.

“Our vision is to make Bangalore a zero waste city, and it is a reasonable goal to set, if we follow certain guidelines and make waste collection and disposal an accessible and scientific process. We’ve already spoken to over 45,000 households,” says David, who is also an ardent environmentalist and works towards a greener city.

According to him, if scrap dealers are educated on how to scientifically extract metal from e-waste and recycle these products, instead of just burning them, which is both hazardous to the scrap dealers and the environment, there could be a major change in the way e-waste is handled.

Contact David SR at 9986452888 to know more about e-waste recycling and how you can be a part of the movement as well. Additionally to get your e-waste picked up right from your house/organisation, contact E-Parisaraa at their toll free number: 1800 425 35287.

 

Signal-free Corridors in Bangalore City Get Cabinet Nod

Thursday, 30 January 2014 07:17 administrator
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The New Indian Express              30.01.2014

Signal-free Corridors in Bangalore City Get Cabinet Nod

A slew of projects to ease traffic congestion in the city received Cabinet nod on Tuesday. The Cabinet cleared the proposal for making five important traffic corridors signal-free. They are: Mysore Road to Central Silk Board, Central Silk Board to Vellara Junction, Rajkumar Road to Yeshwantpur Circle, Vellara Junction to National Highway 4 near Kundalahalli and Mekhri Circle to Hope Farm near Whitefiled.

According to sources, the project is estimated to cost about `630 crore. The Cabinet is also said to have agreed to start the tender process for developing five arterial roads in the Central Business District of Bangalore.

The roads are: St Marks Road, Richmond Road, Residency Road, Vittal Mallya Road and Commissariat Road.

The five roads would be developed under the Tender SURE system.

According to sources, the Cabinet deferred a decision on the CID report on irregularities in recruitment of probationary officers by KPSC in 2011.

The government is thinking of cancelling the selection list and starting a fresh process for selection of candidates.

It is said to have decided to seek legal opinion before taking a final decision.

The Cabinet also proposed to set up a Regional Drug Testing Laboratory in Hubli at a cost of `9 crore, establish a comprehensive bio-technology centre at T Narasipura for storing a gene pool of native breeds of various crops.

It is learnt that it has decided to appoint Justice H N Nagamohan Das as a judicial member of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT).

 

Dump Yard in Rajajinagar Becomes Food Street

Thursday, 30 January 2014 07:09 administrator
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The New Indian Express              30.01.2014

Dump Yard in Rajajinagar Becomes Food Street

The 10th main of Rajajinagar 1st block block has been transformed to a clean and hygienic area from what it was earlier.
The 10th main of Rajajinagar 1st block block has been transformed to a clean and hygienic area from what it was earlier.

Setting an example of how the involvement of the community driven by need can transform the city, food vendors of Rajajinagar Ist block, converted a dump yard into a food street in line with the popular food street at VV Puram, Basavanagudi.

S Harish, former deputy mayor of Bangalore and now corporator of the Nagapura ward explained , “For the past 10 years, the 19th main of Rajajinagar Ist block had become a dump yard and a public urinal place. Sadly, there are two schools, Vidyavarthaka Sangha and Panchajanya School, closeby. We tried many ways to address the issue, but it was going out of control and we were receiving a lot of complaints on a daily basis. Just a year ago, we chalked out a plan and wanted to transform this garbage zone. That’s when the idea of bringing vendors, who were scattered in and around the area, into one place came about,” he said.

The BBMP helped in cleaning up the road and renovated the footpath. The rest was taken up by the street vendors themselves. “They painted the compound all along the street, depicting street food. The vendors have even submitted an application in which they have promised to keep the place clean and hygienic. They wear hand gloves and a head cap to maintain cleanliness. Pure drinking water is available,” he said.

Encouraged by the response, the corporator plans to set up a similar module in another street at Rajajinagar. “A place near Nandini Theatre has become a dump yard. Since this food street has become a hit, we will follow the same pattern of having a food street in there too. We are chalking out a plan and will soon call vendors for a meeting,” said the corporator.

Madhukar HV, who represents the residents of the ward, feels that life has come back to 19th main. “We never thought that this place can be converted into a food court. We are glad to set an example,” he said.

 
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