The government has given a free hand to polluters to damage the environment of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, as the Environment Monitoring System (EMS) staff awaits salaries after the devolution of the Environment Ministry.
The staffs of EMS and the National Bio-safety Centre, two sub-bodies of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), have not received monthly salaries since July 1st, when the Environment Ministry was dissolved.
Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), which is now heading the EPA, refused to issue the salaries of the two mentioned bodies, while demanding the EPA prove that these bodies were essential for the EPA. An EPA official said the environment of Islamabad and Rawalpindi was being damaged as polluters had a free hand now-a-days.
“The EMS staff is responsible for the monitoring and field work. But since they did not get their salaries we cannot force them to work, and without this body, we can not monitor the field,” the official said.
He said CADD had asked them to prove the utility of these bodies and they had prepared a summery which would be presented to CADD after the Eid holidays.
He said, “A dozen marble factories in B/17 sector are continuously violating the EPA’s order. However, we do not have a monitoring force to keep a check on them.” He said they were facing numerous problems as the Punjab Environment Tribunal which was responsible for handling cases of the twin cities had been not functioning due to the absence of a chairman.
“In the absence of the monitoring force and environment tribunal, we have become disabled and can not do anything to stop environmental degradation,” he said.
