ABBOTTABAD: The district administration and Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on Wednesday sealed many stone crushing plants for polluting local environment.

The residents of Chona Kari and Ghumawan areas had lodged complaints with the authorities against the stone crushing plants. The district administration and EPA first served notices on the owners of the stone crushing plants for polluting environment t and posing a problem for the residents of the both villages.

However, the owners did not bother to respond to the notices and continued to crush stones. Additional Assistant Commissioner Syed Abbass Ali Shah Bukhari along with a team of EPA raided the stone crushing plants and sealed about 12 plants for violating rules and creating pollution, which was dangerous for the health of residents of the area.

On the occasion, Syed Abbas Ali Shah said that they sealed the plants on the complaints of the villagers, were disturbed by the noise and dust of the plants.

He said that they would take strict action against other plants if they received any complaint about it.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2016