Daily Times

The Faisalabad district, which is placed in the smog red zone, is likely to confront ever-high poor air quality and smog this year due to the few resources of the Department of Environmental Protection, compelling them to stop anti-smog measures.

The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the air quality monitoring operation system to measure air pollution has become inactive here while the department does not have funds worth Rs 3 lakhs to overhaul it.

The department has only one vehicle in which the department has no budget for refueling and no TADA is being paid to the inspectors for coming and going.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has included Faisalabad district in the red zone along with Lahore, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura districts for smog. And its effects are also evident that Faisalabad is an industrial city due to which air pollution has already become a major problem. Whereas, smog season has compounded the issue.

The PDMA has formed a special committee for anti-smog measures in Faisalabad, with Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali as a convener and Farhat Abbas Kamoka, secretary, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Department, as head of 16 departments.

When asked by the scribe about the current rate of air and environmental pollution in Faisalabad district, the head of any department including the deputy commissioner was unable to respond to the question.

According to sources, the Department of Environmental Protection informed Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad Muhammad Ali, who is also the convener of the Anti-Smog Committee, about releasing funds for the repair of the air quality monitoring operators system but no response has been received so far.

The Environmental Protection Department’s own environment in Faisalabad has deteriorated because the Environmental Protection Department does not have the resources or manpower to prevent smog. According to sources, the Environmental Protection Department has sanctioned 11 inspectors for anti-smog measures in the district with a population of 8 million, but at present only 5 inspectors are posted in the department while 6 posts are vacant. Similarly, the department has only one vehicle available

The Punjab government has declared smog a disaster across the province, including Faisalabad, and imposed various restrictions, including setting fire to crop residues and imposing heavy fines, including filing a case against the farmer concerned. However, due to ‘violation of these orders by the Faisalabad Agriculture Department’, 40 complaints were lodged in different police stations out of which FIR was registered in only 5 cases while the remaining 35 cases have been postponed.

Similarly, during the crackdown on smoke emitting vehicles, 36 petitions were filed against the violators out of which only 3 petitions were processed while the remaining 33 petitions were pending. Complaints of non-cooperation by the police with the concerned departments to prevent smog are also being made.

According to the announcement made by the Punjab government, the brick kilns in Faisalabad district will be completely closed down from November 7 to December 31, but how can this be implemented? In this regard, the inspectors of the Department of Environmental Protection are very worried to implement the orders with few resources.

In this regard, Farhat Abbas Kamoka, Deputy Director, Department of Environmental Protection, said that the instructions issued by PDMA are being implemented but no funds are being released to the department in this regard.

The air quality monitoring apparatus system of the department has broken down but no funds are being provided for its repair. A letter has been written to the concerned authorities for the release of funds but no reply has been received so far. He further said that as the secretary of the departments involved in the anti-smog committee, he was receiving complaints that the police were not cooperating with him for registration of cases on which a letter has also been written to the city police officer. In such a situation, it will be very difficult to successfully implement smog control measures.