The Punjab government nominated focal people on Thursday to launch collaborative anti-pollution efforts between the industrial sector and the Punjab Environment Protection Department to address the smog problem.
Additionally, the Minister instructed the teams from the Environment Department to investigate the steel factories after 11:00 am. In a bilateral meeting with a delegation from the Pakistan Steel Re-Rolling Mills Association, Punjab Environment Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja accepted the designation of focal people.
Ch. Waseem Qadir served as the delegation’s leader, and other officers in the group included General Secretary All Pakistan Steel Rerolling Association Muhammad Kamran, Vice President Small Steel Rerolling Association Abid Saeed, and Chairman Ravi Industrial Owners Association Inam-ul-Haque Butt.
In his remarks to the delegation, Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) Minister Mohammad Basharat Raja stressed the importance of the industrial sector’s collaboration in preserving the environment. “The measures of the department of the environment are not intended to fine factories, but rather to ensure that the environment is protected,” he stated.
He stated that the EPD and district administration teams were actively working to reduce pollution, but he made it clear that the team’s operations were intended to prevent potential smog, not to obstruct industrial activity.
The team advised the provincial minister that because furnaces produce more smoke at first but less smoke over time, morning inspections do not accurately reflect the situation.
Raja Basharat conceded and gave the order for the EPD personnel to visit the steel plants after 11 a.m. He claimed that the Punjab administration is doing everything it can to safeguard its citizens from an unhealthy environment.
