Most industries operating without EPA NOCs: minister

New environment protection rules, regulations up for public consultation

LAHORE:

Punjab Minister for Environment Protection Bao Muhammad Rizwan has said that most units and industries in the province were operating without No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) and causing severe pollution as well as evading taxes

Talking to the media at the Environment Protection Department (EPD) committee room on Tuesday, the minister said rules will be placed for approval before the cabinet after the completion of the public consultation process.

To deal with the issues, Rizwan said, the approved units would be monitored for environmental standards’ compliance and the department is formulating standard operating procedures (SOPs) for small resource recovery units.

The minister underscored that illegal and improper disposal of hazardous waste causes several severe and dangerous diseases like dementia and lung cancer.

Furthermore, the Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department, District Administration, Police and EPA have been instructed to take stern action against the violators to protect the health of the citizens as well as earth.

Rizwan said that the Punjab Environment Protection Agency (EPA) did not formulate the required rules since 2012 and instead the federal rules were adopted by it.

“Punjab EPA has now drafted the following rules and regulations: Draft Punjab Environmental Protection (Administrative Penalty and Compounding of Offences) Rules 2020, Punjab Hazardous Substances Rules 2020, Punjab Batteries (Environment Management & Handling) Rules 2020, Punjab Review of Initial Environmental Examination and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation 2020,” he highlighted.

The minister pointed out that thousands of cases are awaiting decisions due to the unavailability of penalty rules, which would now be streamlined.

“EPA would take strict action against persistent defaulters and units operating without obtaining environmental approval,” Rizwan warned.

Speaking on the occasion, the environment protection minister revealed that most units and industries in Punjab are operating without No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and are causing severe pollution as well as evading taxes.

“One window is being established for the facilitation of public in ease of doing business, all IEE/EIA applications will go online and the status of the application will be available on the online portal,” he concluded.

EPD Secretary Zahid Hussain, DG Arshad Abbas and other relevant officials were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2020.