KSPCB E- Manifest app to reduce chances of forgery

The Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2016, mandates the industries to maintain Hazardous Waste Manifest (or Manifest) a shipping document., prepared and signed by the authorised sender, that travels along with the hazardous waste from the point of generation. through transportation, to the final treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF).

The manifest contains details such as type and quantity of the hazardous waste being transported, instructions for handling the waste and signature lines for all parties involved in the disposal process. The objective of the manifest system is to track hazardous waste from the time it leaves the generator facility until it reaches the off-site waste management facility (TSDF, Incinerator. recyclers. reprocessors, Pre-processors) that will store, treat or dispose of the hazardous waste.

Until now, returns and records under the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules. 2016 were received and processed manually making it a very tedious process. To simplify the same, an IT initiative in the form of E-Manifest is taken up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board in the State of Karnataka.

E-Manifest is a web based application which enables registration and collection of Hazardous wastes, transaction control, transparency in operations, accountability at all levels, sustainability and convenience to all stakeholders.

With the new system in place from April 01, the member secretary KSPCB Srinivasulu said 250 registrations have taken place and the Board will ensure hand-holding of all those involved in the waste disposal process to ensure all stakeholders are familiarised with the process soon.

He added that Peenya and Jigani have been termed critically polluted and various steps are being taken to keep pollution in check.

The major highlight of the E-manifest is the one-time approval of the registered industry by the Regional Office. "List of the registered industries shall appear on the web-portal once the industries register themselves. The concerned RO shall approve the industry registration after verifying details. The history of the transactions of the hazardous waste Manifest and inventory can be viewed in the E-Manifest portal," the notification read.

Srinivasulu added that with the new system in place the chances of forgery would be minimised.

"When seven different copies of the same manifesto declared by any industry were issued manually, chances of mismatches were high. Now, cross-checking is easy," he added.

The member secretary also appraised that the KSPCB now plans to embed GPS technology to step up possibilities of the E-Manifest initiative.