LAHORE:Chief Secretary Punjab Abdullah Khan Sumbal Tuesday directed all the relevant departments to expedite the collective efforts for overcoming the smog.
He issued a directive while presiding over a meeting on smog control at the Civil Secretariat here. The administrative secretaries of various departments including environment protection, local government, industries, agriculture, transport, health, deputy commissioners (DCs) Lahore and officers concerned attended the meeting while the DCs of Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, Okara, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Narowal, and Faisalabad participated through video link.
The chief secretary said that the smog situation was comparatively better than last year, but a lot of work needed to be done to control environmental pollution. He issued orders to the Environment Protection Department (EPD) to hold consultative sessions with all the stakeholders including civil society.
He said that the suggestions of civil society would prove to be helpful in preventing smog. The meeting also decided to carry-out inspections of all the government vehicles.
Briefing the meeting, the secretary EPD said that in October, the authorities sealed 1,058 industrial units causing environmental pollution, registered 696 cases and imposed fines of more than Rs24 million. The inspection teams sealed 583 industrial units, lodged (first information reports) FIRs and imposed fines of over Rs34 million in Lahore.
He said that during the last two-week, 46,000 inspections were conducted and 3,168 smoke-emitting vehicles were impounded. Likewise, 20 cases were registered over burning garbage during the last month.
He said that due to the direction of the wind, the smoke from burning crop residues across the border is affecting Lahore.