Provincial Minister for Environment Protection and Population Welfare Begum Zakia Shahnawaz presided over a meeting of the committee set up to look into causes and control of severe fog in winter. The committee will present proposals and recommendations for improving visibility limit from the months of November to February in the province.
The members of the committee informed the Minister that combined with smoke, intensity of fog increases due to which visibility limit is reduced. The committee stressed the need for resolving this problem by adopting measures of international standard for saving environment from pollution. Proposals were presented regarding protection against harmful effects of smoke emitting from vehicles and factories in urban areas and burning of waste agricultural produce in villages.
The Minister said that causes of air pollution should be determined and practicable proposals be presented for its control. She said that there is a need of taking long term steps for elimination of pollution and cooperation of concerned institutions is of vital importance in this regard. The committee stressed the need of shifting industries from residential areas besides tree plantation around cities by Forests Department and monitoring of smoke-emitting vehicles by city police. The meeting emphasized upon EPA to further improve the standard of monitoring for ensuring pollution-free environment. Members of the committee included Dr. Arifa Lodhi, General Manager SUPARCO and Director General EPA Tauqeer Ahmed.