Commissioner Nauman Yousuf on Monday ordered the four district administrations of Lahore Division to tighten anti-smog work, drawing a zero-tolerance line on fires of crop residue, garbage and other waste. That direction is the concrete official move on smog in Pakistan today in this belt of Punjab, and it comes as the rice harvest starts. Deputy commissioners and officers from the relevant departments were in the divisional meeting he chaired.
What district teams must do
Anti-smog squads are to be created and put fully to work in Lahore, Kasur, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura. Their first job is to stop rice stubble being set alight. District teams and the agriculture department must move against anyone who keeps burning residue, and farmers are to be warned through notices, mosque announcements and awareness campaigns about how to limit the haze.
The same squads are to remain active in Nankana Sahib, around the Sheikhupura Motorway and in other localities, with no effort spared on air pollution. The Parks and Horticulture Authority, Suthra Punjab and environment teams must treat green-waste burning as a punishable offence and act on it. The timing matches the opening of harvesting, the stretch widely described as smog season in Pakistan, when rice-residue fires are the main target.
Fines, vehicles and brick kilns
Officials told the meeting that crop-residue burning had already produced one first information report, the police complaint that starts a criminal case, plus six prosecutions and fines totalling Rs90,000. Mr Yousuf said districts must keep enforcing the ban on substandard fuel and on fires of garbage and tyres, and must continue crackdowns where those rules are broken.
Rules for transport and for sand-carrying trolleys that come into Lahore at night are to be applied in full. Traffic police and the regional transport authorities have been told to fine such vehicles and impound them when they emit excessive smoke. The meeting heard that traffic and environment squads are already deployed at Lahore's entry and exit points for this purpose.
Brick kilns have to operate to the standards laid down for them. The commissioner again set zero tolerance for any kiln running without zigzag technology, the design the rules require, or sending out black smoke. Readers checking smog in Pakistan today will find the enforcement orders from this meeting and the penalty figures the briefing recorded.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Commissioner Nauman Yousuf ne Lahore Division ke chaar zilon ko smog ke khilaf sakht iqdamat ka hukum diya hai. Chawal ka bhusa, kachra aur doosra waste jalana bardasht nahi hoga. Meeting mein ek FIR, chhe muqadme aur 90,000 rupay ke jurmane ka zikr hua. Zyada dhuan nikalne wali gaari par jurmana ho sakta hai aur gaari rok li ja sakti hai.
