LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that smog has been declared a calamity in the province and any violation of the ban on burning the solid waste would not be tolerated and action would be initiated against concerned officials of waste management companies over any incident of burning the trash.
While chairing a meeting at his office on Friday, the CM stressed that anti-smog measures should be result-oriented and directed to continue indiscriminate crackdown against factories and smog emitting vehicles in the province.
Similarly, action be initiated against factories involved in burning tyres; such units should be sealed along with the imposition of fines, he continued. The water be sprinkled in the city daily and steps be taken immediately for the procurement of electric buses, he said.
The CM expressed his displeasure over the delay in the procurement of electric buses and asked to submit a final plan in this regard.
He directed to impose a 50 percent cut in the number of official vehicles and asked the secretaries to submit a compliance report to his office. The scope of the anti-smog squad would be further expanded as 5 anti-smog squads have already been constituted in Lahore, he said.
The CM directed to take effective action against those responsible for burning the stumble. The environment protection department, agriculture, industries, transport and officials of the administration should personally monitor anti-smog measures in the field, he mentioned.
The CM said a proposal be forwarded to the federal government to make harvesters duty-free for harvesting the paddy crop. Meanwhile, a 24/7 smog monitoring cell has been set up in PDMA and geo-tagging of brick-kilns has been completed, he concluded.
Moreover, while chairing the 68th meeting of the cabinet committee of finance and development accorded approval to upgrade police prison vans with a supplementary grant of Rs71 million.
The meeting approved Rs30.80 million grants in aid for sports associations along with approving the revision of PC-1 for remodelling of Ammar Chowk airport road Rawalpindi. The inclusion of a drainage scheme valuing Rs30 million of a suburban village of Sargodha in ADP 2021-22 was approved.
The meeting accorded approval to include a dual carriageway scheme from Syedwala Chowk Bosan Road to Head Muhammadwala in Multan in ADP 2021-22 and approved Rs1184 million for it. Provision of bulldozers for repair and maintenance of roads in Barthi area of Koh-e-Suleman was also approved.
Meanwhile, the up-gradation of BHU Kuntraila to RHC in Gujar Khan tehsil along with its inclusion in ADP 2021-22 and approval of a supplementary grant of Rs120 million was recommended by the participants. It also approved the release of funds for newly constructed boys’ primary schools in Basti Dangu union council Barthi and Basti Khayaniwhet union council Barthi in tehsil Koh-e-Suleman.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021