NLA warns of protest against EPA restructuring

MULTAN: The National Labour Alliance has rejected restructuring in the Punjab Environment Protection Agency and warned of launching a protest movement against it.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, NLA chairman Ghazi Ahmed Hassan Khokhar urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to withdraw restructuring in the EPA and abolishment of the district offices.

He apprehended that abolishment of the district offices would cause downsizing of more than 200 trained and experienced employees. He said that the EPA was established to protect environment at the district level with small-scale staff. Now, under restructuring the district offices were being abolished rather than expanding them to the tehsil level, he added.

The EPA had established an environmental laboratory in Multan in 2007 to monitor environmental pollution sources in south Punjab and its abolishment was also part of the so-called restructuring plan, he said, adding that the proposed abolishment of environmental laboratory from Multan would certainly deprive south Punjab of the facility.

He alleged that the EPA was promoting establishment of private environment laboratories, which was unjustified. He claimed that Punjab former minister Chaudhry Abdul Waheed Arian had submitted a summary in January last to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to establish the Directorate of Environment in Multan to facilitate the people of south Punjab and solving their environmental issues. He said that the summary had been pending since long. He said that there was only one Environmental Tribunal in Lahore for the entire province. He demanded establishment of an Environmental Tribunal in Multan to cater to the needs of south Punjab.