ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Forest Department has formally opposed the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency's move to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Sangjani landfill site for disposing off garbage of the federal capital, arguing that this project was located in the jurisdiction of Punjab and it would be a violation of the Forest Act 1927.
Both the Forest Department, Punjab, and former Inspector General Mahmood Nasir have written separate letters to the EPA, opposing the landfill site at Sangjani, which in reality would be dumped near the Nicholson Monument in village Jandu, located in the jurisdiction of Punjab. In the aftermath of the 18th Amendment, the question arises how the federal agency is empowered to conduct the EIA into the provincial domain because environment was now a devolved subject.
The federal agency EPA is scheduled to hold a public hearing on November 17, 2020 (today) at the Convention Center, Islamabad, that might be postponed in the wake of sit-ins by the TLP and blockade of the federal capital.
However, the residents of the area are objecting to falsification of facts as the landfill site is planned in the Margalla Reserved Forest near the Nicholson Monument in village Jandu, Tehsil Taxila, District Rawalpindi, Punjab province. It is being deceptively titled Sangjani, which is located in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) but in fact this project is located in Punjab.
The sources said that the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad or the CDA did not bother to formally ask for No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Punjab Forest Department to make the landfill site at the Margalla Reserved Forest. A senior official of the Forest Department, when contacted, said that they did not receive any such proposal but if they did, then they would oppose it, citing the Forest Act as under the law it could not be permitted.
There serious constitutional, legal and environmental issues pertaining to the proposed project and its EEI/EIA being processed by the Federal Environment Protection Agency.
Since the proposed site is located in the province of Punjab, hence, the federal EPA has no jurisdiction and legal authority to conduct or even entertain this EEI/EIA. After the 18th Constitutional Amendment, environment is a provincial subject and all the provinces have adopted the Environmental Protection Act 1997, and now the authority to conduct this EEI/EIA, is under authority and jurisdiction of the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency.
The proposal of the MCI constitutes a flagrant violation of the Punjab Forest Act 1927. The Director Sanitation and Chief Municipal Officer, MCI, and the consultant who has prepared a false report and the EIA, have already committed the offence by attempting to construct the proposed landfill site and are liable for prosecution under the Forest Act 1927. They mislead the MCI and already caused loss to public exchequer.
The proposed site is very close to the main water reservoir of Khanpur Metropolitan Water Supply Scheme, which supplies drinking water to Islamabad, Rawalpindi City and the Cantonment. If the MCI and federal EPA go ahead with this illegal project, ignoring all the constitutional and legal imperatives, it will be causing toxicity and rendering unfit for human consumption the water of the mega reservoir and water source of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.