Lahore
Punjab Minister for Environment Protection Muhammad Rizwan on Monday said that strict implementation of relevant rules and regulations will be ensured for issuing environmental no-objection certificates for business and made it clear that all those units working without the NOCs would be shut down.
Addressing a press conference at DGPR office here, he said that the strict accountability process had been launched and industrial units would be dealt with in accordance with the law and no pressure would be tolerated in action against the big fish.
Muhammad Rizwan said that 75 anti-dengue squads of the Environment Protection Department (EPD) were working round-the-clock in the province. He said that the number of anti-dengue squads had been increased from 9 to 16 in Lahore, while the number of teams was doubled in Rawalpindi from 4 to 8 and the EPD also doubled the number of anti-dengue squads in other dengue affected districts.
Muhammad Rizwan said that an awareness campaign was being launched to sensitize the people about possible threat of smog, adding that new equipments were being installed to gauge the air pollution and the brick-kilns that failed to adopt zig-zag technology would be shutdown in the light of court directions.
He said that notices had been issued to 1,890 industrial units for spreading air pollution and 130 brick-kilns had also been shut down by the department.
He said that construction of 166 brick-kilns of old technology had been stopped while 213 other brick-kilns shifted to the latest zig-zag technology.
The minister said that the latest equipment had been installed in 46 of the 337 steel mills of Lahore to control air pollution and smog teams had also been constituted in industrial units. “A ban has been imposed on burning of tyres, plastic polythene bags and crops’ residue etc,” he added.
The minister said that implementation of the Punjab Green Development Programme was underway in collaboration with the World Bank to improve environmental governance by promoting green investment in the province. Thirty new stations would be established to gauge the air quality along with setting up 15 new stations to measure water pollution in the future, concluded the minister.—APP
