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WEEKLY
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| Case against CDGL, EPD officials for confiscating generator |
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE
GHALIB Market police have registered a case against the officials of the City District Government, Lahore, and the Environment Protection Department, who had raided a house and confiscated a generator.
According to details, the EPD of the CDGL had received a complaint from Ms Imtiaz, a resident of Gulberg III, that her neighbours, residents of House 292-A-1, had installed a big generator due to which her family was facing serious problems of noise and air pollution.
Following the complaint, the officials sent a notice to the residents of the said house and directed them to appear before the DDO Environment. The officials said none of the house representatives appeared in the DDO office on the said date after which another notice was served on the residents. They said after the passing of the due date, a team of officials and the field inspector concerned visited the house on April 29, 2009, and tried to serve notice on the residents but they refused to take it and allegedly tore the notice apart and misbehaved with the officials. Following the situation, the team confiscated the generator under Section 148-B of the Punjab Local Government Law and also submitted an application against the residents in Ghalib Market police station and a case was registered.
However, Ghalib Market police, later, registered a theft and trespassing case (362/09) against officials of the EPD of the CDGL on the complaint of Ms Huma Saeed, resident of the said house. She pleaded that the team broke into her house without any authority and took away the generator.
The SP Model Town, when contacted, said the fault lied with the EPD officials as they had no right to enter the house. He said the case registered by Ghalib Market police on the complaint of the government officials was not right because a senior official inquired into the matter and concluded that the residents did not misbehave with the team.
The SP said the house residents went to the Chief Minister’s House at 180-H Model Town to get their case registered against the officials of the EPD of the CDGL. However, he Town failed to answer the question as why Ghalib Market police had registered a theft case against the officials concerned and got the generator back from the Town Hall office of EPD of the CDGL.
A senior official of the EPD, the CDGL, said the department could not take action against the polluters if it continued to face such threats and blackmailing tactics. He said the generator was sealed as per law and in the presence of police as well as the local residents. He said the department had already served a notice to the residents of 293-A-1, Gulberg III, for installing a 100KVA generator but they did not bother to come to the department to face the issue.
District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman said the DCO, Lahore, had already constituted a committee to investigate the issue. He said action would be taken against the law breakers. A spokesman for the EPD said that the EPD secretary had also asked the Director North to inquire into the issue.
Meanwhile, environmentalists said the majority of generator users had not installed silencers on their generators, besides they were using diesel engines. Generators are also installed outside business establishments, banks, offices, shops, markets and etc, which increased air pollution in the city.
On the other hand, the rules and regulations of Environment Protection Department are not clear regarding installation of generators at homes or for any other small scale use.
The rules only cover commercial and industrial sectors and such consumers were bound to get a no objection certificate from the department.
Talking about the issue, a senior official of the EPD said the department had already directed the telecommunication companies installing BTS Towers in the province to give priority to the uninterruptible power supply system at their sites.
He said the second priority was gas generators and the diesel generators were the last choice. In case of a diesel generator, the company was bound to install silencer and other equipments on the generator to control its sound as well as emissions, he said.
Another official of the EPD said the noise released from generators should not be more than 70 decibels. Talking about the public complaints, he said the department could take action in case it received a complaint. He said an EPD team could conduct a survey of the premises and gauge the levels of noise and air emissions and in case of a violation the generator could be sealed.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
