LAHORE - Provincial Minister Environment Protection Muhammad Rizwan has said that failure to frame rules and regulations in the Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab was an obstacle in checking industrial units violating environment laws. In a talk with mediamen here on Sunday, he said in the absence of hazardous substances, waste management and penalty rules, industries are dumping hazardous and toxic waste haphazardly which is a serious concern for public health and can turn into a major environmental catastrophe. “Almost all industrial units in the province are being run illegally as these were established without a valid No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)”, he responded, adding that no penalties could be imposed in the absence of penalty rules. To a question, Minister Environment said the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab should have framed its rules and regulations under the Punjab Environment Protection Act 1997 (Amended 2012) but it has not been done despite lapse of a decade. He acknowledged that review of the Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) and Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations which set procedure and criteria for issuance of environmental approvals have not been notified to-date. On penalty rules, Muhamamd Rizwan said there are administrative penalties under section 17 of the Punjab Environmental Protection Act but not rules have been notified by the EPA, adding that since the period of violation is very long and there are no rules, these cases are being sent to the Punjab Environmental Tribunal (PET) for remedy. ‘I have stopped issuance of NOCs to the illegally constructed industry as people at the helm of affairs look reluctant to formulate rules’, he responded, adding that he was pursuing aggressive legislation to check the growth of illegal industry and resultant environmental challenges in Punjab.
The Minister acknowledged the fact that hundreds of approvals were issued without merit to the erring industry units by the officers, he said decades old rules cannot be applied to the industries today otherwise the industry may play havoc with the already degrading industry.
About rules, he said the draft rules and regulations were lying with the provincial law department for vetting, adding that, during the interim period of more than a decade, scores of industrial units have been constructed without environmental approval in violation of Section 12 of Act, whereas every project has to acquire environmental approval at proposed site before starting construction.
“I also ordered a forensic audit of the EIA Directorate of the EPD soon after taking charge as minister”, he said adding that the audit was necessary for transparency and smooth functioning of the department
About challenges, Minister Environment said the biggest challenge was lack of staff as there were 16 officials for eight tehsils, adding that the World Bank (WB) has provided funding of 273 million dollars to the EPD Punjab and the 40 percent of the funding is earmarked for restructuring. He said absence of technical staff also hurt effective control of the EPD in the province.