PESHAWAR, May 2: The NWFP’s Environment Protection Agency has taken action against 12 cotton ginning factories located in the thickly-populated Dabgari Garden area for polluting the air. Owners of these factories had been directed to design their machines for controlling dust particle emission, Director-General EPA NWFP, Hammad Awais Agha said, adding that the EPA was technically assisting them for designing a system to control dust particle emission.

The EPO was issued in response to a public complaint that was confirmed by EPA’s inspection team.

He said these factories had been working for more than 30 years and had no dust control system.

The DG EPA said that there were 44 cases lying with the Environmental Tribunal in Peshawar, adding that 12 of them were being under-trial.

These cases are about marble factories, poultry farms and stone crushing units.

Sixteen EPOs had also been issued to owners of brick kilns for burning rubber in their units. — APP