In December last, MC councillors had moved a proposal to form a committee to look into e-waste disposal but nothing has been done so far.

Officials maintain that the UT Administration is planning to develop a site near Dera Bassi for proper disposal of e-waste, in collaboration with the Punjab Government.

By 2021, the city’s population is expected to be around 20 lakh. With the demand for electronic goods increasing, tackling e-waste is going to be a major challenge for the administration and the Municipal Corporation.

In December, nominated councillor Arshad Khan had introduced an agenda in the House on the disposal of e-waste. Neither the officials nor the councillors, including the Mayor, showed any interest in the issue.

“Vendors of IT hardware have hundreds of products on display. They want business and consumers to buy. Monitors, servers, switches, printers, drives and cables. But did you even wonder what happens to all that IT hardware when it gets old, damaged or outdated,” says Arshad Khan.

It is estimated that 70 per cent of heavy metals found in landfills come from electronic discards. These metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics can contaminate ground water. Unlike consumers, some businesses in the city have used different strategies IT junk disposal. Many enterprises have sold old IT hardware as scrap.

Another nominated councillor, Dr A P Sanwaria, who was chairman of the MC’s Health and Sanitation Committee last year, told Newsline that even the setting up of a garbage processing plant at Dadumajra is not going to solve the problem of e-waste disposal as he said the plant is not capable of doing so.