Chandigarh IT dept neglected proper e-waste disposal, says audit

The principal director of audit, Chandigarh, has highlighted several irregularities in the functioning of the UT department of information technology, including ignoring e-waste management rules, leading to significant environmental and compliance issues.
The department was established in March 2000 with a view to cater to the information technology needs of all departments/offices under the Chandigarh administration. Its primary objective is to implement the IT policy for UT administration in addition to implementing and managing various governance initiatives of the Government of India.
Another mandate of the department is to provide plans and direction to the Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC) for implementing various proposals and e-governance initiatives of the administration to promote the IT industry in the city.
The UT adviser is the chairperson of the society, whose office is located in Sector 9, Chandigarh, while the IT secretary is the president its executive body.
The report detailed that as per para 4.4 of the guidelines for disposal of obsolete IT and electronics equipment, an “e-waste management cell” shall be created by the IT department in consultation with the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee. This cell would be responsible for the auctioning, collection and disposal of e-waste generated by UT departments in a proper manner as per the e-Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011, and Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001.
In August 2022, the department entered into an agreement with M/s Ortech India Corporation for disposing of e-waste of UT departments for the period from April 2021 to March 2023.
However, after expiry of the agreement, the department instructed all heads of departments (HODs) to auction unserviceable IT equipment at their own level, leading to huge accumulation of e-waste, apart from loss of revenue.
Even after repeated attempts, UT adviser Rajiv Verma did not respond to calls and messages.
RK Garg, who procured the report under the RTI Act, said several irregularities had been pointed out by the audit department. Thus, the UT administration should start monitoring the compliances minutely.
₹3.49 lakh in rent not recovered
In more financial negligence, as of March 2023, the department had failed to recover ₹3.49 lakh in rent against space allotted at the Entrepreneur Development Centre (EDC).
The department provides furnished and unfurnished space to entrepreneurs, and small and medium enterprises on rent in the EDC building at Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park. The amount pertains to eight software companies that were given space on rent.
Further, for the period from 2021-22 to 2022-23, it was observed that two bays (Bay No. 1 and 2) out of a total of 15 bays were being used as a computer lab for information and communication technologies (ICT) training. This not only defeated the very purpose of the construction of the EDC building but also led to revenue loss of ₹1.73 lakh per month.