Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh participated in an e-waste disposal activity at the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under Special Swachhata Campaign 6.0, a dedicated one-month cleanliness exercise conducted from Gandhi Jayanti to Patel Jayanti. The campaign aims to reinforce cleanliness practices and unlock the value of scrap through systematic disposal of obsolete office equipment.
The disposal exercise involved three auction notices floated on the GeM Portal on September 30, 2026, covering IT items, electrical/electronic items, and furniture with separate reserve prices. The IT category included 152 desktops, 35 printers, 8 scanners, 3 photocopier machines, 59 UPS units, and 217 miscellaneous items. The electrical/electronic category comprised 52 air conditioners, 4 television sets, 5 refrigerators, and 17 water dispensers. The combined recommended reserve price for all categories was approximately ₹9 lakh.
Dr. Singh highlighted that the campaign has generated approximately ₹490 crore through scrap disposal within the first 15-17 days, and expressed confidence that this figure would more than double by October 31. He emphasized the change in approach from sending scrap to market without uniform process to using the GeM Portal, recognizing that obsolete equipment has residual value rather than being treated as waste. The Minister also noted the common practice of discarding entire computer sets when individual components become unusable, even when remaining equipment is intact.
Secretary of DoPT, Ms. Rachna Shah, along with other senior officials, participated in the event. The campaign represents a focused effort to combine cleanliness objectives with systematic disposal of obsolete assets and realization of their residual value, incorporating new elements based on previous editions' experience.