LAHORE: The Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab has decided to give some more time to brick kilns in the province for their conversion to zig-zag technology.

“A note in this regard will soon be moved to the Chief Minister Punjab and a final decision will be taken in this regard,” said the Punjab Environment Minister Muhammad Rizwan while speaking at a meeting on smog jointly chaired by him and Punjab Industries Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal.

The minister said that no solid waste such as hospital waste or plastic waste will be allowed to be burn in any premises of Punjab. Strict action will be taken against the illegal steel mills using substandard fuel, he added.

The minister said that no industrial unit will be allowed to work unless it will not be registered with the FBR. Moreover, the industrial units also need to obtain all the necessary approvals of departments concerned otherwise their operations will not be allowed at any cost.

During the meeting both the ministers reviewed the progress of smog committee and decided that all tasks will be speed up and finalized before first spell of SMOG.

The brick kiln issue was discussed in details and it has been decided that they would be shifted to zig zag technology with support of Bank of Punjab soft loans. Furthermore, all the departments representatives informed the meeting that they have been doing their respective tasks and before the smog upcoming spell things will be finalized.

A detailed meeting regarding the soft loan for brick kiln conversion will also be held with the concerned stakeholders to review the loan status procedure. Furthermore, PSQCA and OGRA will be taken into loop so that final SOPs could be drafted regarding the fake Mobil Oil manufactures and other departments advice has also been sought in this regard, Bao Rizwan added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020