LAHORE           -             Minister for Environment Muhammad Rizwan chaired the meeting of cabinet sub-committee on Smog for implementations of anti smog measures at S&GAD’s committee room on Thursday.

Minister for Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal and Chief Secretary Punjab major(r) Azam Suleman Khan also attended the meeting.

Secretary Environment Protection Department Zahid Hussain briefed the participants about the follow up of actions taken in pursuance of decisions reached in the second meeting to ensure adherence to the timelines assigned for conversion of old technology brick kilns to zig-zag technology, installation of air pollution control systems in industries, controlling vehicle pollution, checking air pollution from stone crushing and cement mixing plants and installation of dust control systems.

He also briefed that according to the final timeframe decided with the brick kiln association, all brick kilns would be shifted to latest technology till December 2020 step-wise. He further said that various awareness drives were being continued by Environment Protection Agency and 30 stone-crushers of Margalla hills were being sealed on the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Secretary Industries briefed that a meeting had held with Pakistan Re-Rolling Mills Association to arrive at an time-barred action plan to curb violation of environmental laws.  Representative of transport told that a letter for release of funds had been sent to the federal government for installation of two-way catalytic convertors in existing vehicles. Representative of traffic police told that IG Police issued instructions to all DPOs and CTOs, taking action against smoke emitting vehicles.

Representative of Agriculture informed the meeting that as many as 620 FIRs had been registered against violators of environmental laws and to avoid such violations for future an action plan was being finalized.

Representative of Health told the meeting that the health department had installed incinerators at district level and had directed to hospital administrations for proper disposal of hospital waste.  Representative LG&CDD informed that water was being sprinkled on the both sides of roads on daily basis.  Punjab Minister Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal said that activities directed to create awareness should be increased . He said that there was a lot needed to be done by all the relevant departments to control the situation. He said a comprehensive strategy should be adopted by the departments for the abolishment of resource recovery units and to eliminate fuel adulteration in Lahore. He directed to secretary EPD to develop a proposal to form to speed up pending cases of departmental inquiries.

He said that for achievement of the goal of clean & green Pakistan, had to perform proactive role and need to take on board all the relevant stakeholders.