LAHORE: The Punjab Environment Agency (EPA) has made it binding upon all the petrol pumps throughout the province to submit a monthly monitoring report to the EPA field office which should be done by the Oil Marketing Company (OMC) concerned in the presence of the agency’s field staff.
The EPA’s laboratories will conduct the fuel quality tests randomly and the pumps will be bound to assist its staff in the said testing process throughout the activities. Any monitoring conducted in the absence of the EPA staff will not be considered a valid report, according to an order issued by the agency recently.
The order said that one of the key contributors to smog is the harmful vehicular emissions due to substandard fuel, which significantly increases the risk to human health. The step is one of the many pre-emptive measures taken by the provincial government to combat the devastating impacts of smog, the order read.
To ensure monthly monitoring of the fuel according to the standards set by the Ogra, the EPA Director General under section 16(1)(t) of the Punjab Environmental Protection Act 1997, had added the conditions mentioned above in the environmental approval to be given to the petrol pumps/filling stations.
Punjab Senior Minister, who also holds the Ministry of Environment, Maryam Aurangzeb on Monday warned of strict legal action against those petrol pumps selling substandard petrol and diesel. She said a campaign is going on against industries, agriculture, vehicles and brick kilns to improve the environment. She said the provincial government had already demolished brick kilns, which do not have zig-zag technology. Steps are being taken to monitor the emission of smoke from industries by use of the latest technology while in the past arrests had been made of those who burnt their crop stubbles instead of properly disposing of them.
“Now the provincial government has initiated legal and administrative steps, according to the vision of the Chief Minister Punjab, against those selling substandard fuel,” said the senior minister Punjab.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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