LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over burning of stubble despite its order and summoned deputy commissioners of four districts of Punjab for explanation.

Justice Shahid Karim was hearing a case against the government failure to take requisite steps to control smog.

An official of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) told the court that incidents of stubble burning had been reported in four districts -- Gujranwala, Okara, Kasur and Hafizabad.

The judge showed displeasure over the incidents and summoned the deputy commissioners of the respective districts to explain their positions.

Summons DCs of four districts

The judge observed that serious steps were needed to be taken to curb the smog and other environmental problems. He remarked that the government should operate buses for the transportation of schoolchildren as it would help control air pollution on roads caused by heavy flow of traffic.

Justice Karim said the school education department would need to awake from its slumber and take action to make the environment clean. He also proposed internship programmes to sensitise the students on the environment issues.

Taking up another issue of parking in the metropolitan city, the judge sought details of the commercial plazas operating in Lahore without their own parking spaces.

The chief town planner of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) submitted a report before the court saying that directions had been issued to the plazas to allocate parking spaces for the visitors.

He said there were approximately 1.7 million cars in the city with insufficient parking facilities. He said the majority of the commercial buildings used public roads for the parking purpose. The officer was of the view that the city had been dealt with reckless policies.

Justice Karim observed that the solution to the parking woes was in a better public transport system.

The judge adjourned the hearing till Oct 18 and summoned details of the buildings and plazas with no parking facility.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022