NAROWAL: Motorists and residents along New Lahore Road faced difficulties on Friday when an official of the Narowal Municipal Committee (MC) allegedly set garbage on fire along the road. The MC, however, denied the allegations.

The smoke affected the visibility of drivers and disrupted traffic. Other than traffic, the MC’s act damaged the Punjab government’s efforts to control smog. The government has banned smoke-emitting vehicles, brick kilns, and factories that do not meet the government’s standards.

The MC dumps the garbage from the entire city of Narowal on New Lahore Road, even though the place is not a designated landfill site. The smoke affected the nearby localities.

Locals Manzoor Ahmed and Usman Bhatti said that MC official Shafiq had set the garbage pile on fire despite their repeated requests not to do so.

They said they have been suffering from respiratory diseases due to the stench arising from the dump.

Abdul Karim and Muhammad Aamir said that they had requested the MC chief officer several times not to dump garbage along the road.

They protested the illegal dumping and burning of the waste, saying the Punjab government, on the one hand, was filing FIRs against factories and vehicles that emit smoke, and on the other hand, the burning of garbage went unnoticed.

Muhammad Ashraf, environment assistant director, said the legal action on burning waste is the responsibility of the MC whereas his department’s scope is to check brick kilns that emit smoke.

MC Chief Officer Rehan Saleem said that he did not ask any employee to set the garbage on fire.

The citizens said that the district administration had failed to control smoke in Narowal and demanded that Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi take immediate notice of the situation.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2022