EP Department NOC must for approval of high-rise buildings

Chief Minister's Task Force for Environment Chairman Dr Awais Farooqi has asked the development authorities and TMAs of the province not to approve maps of commercial plazas and high-rise buildings without obtaining no objection certificate (NOC) from the Environment Protection Department.
He issued these directives in the backdrop of Gakkhar Plaza incident, while addressing a meeting of Environment Protection Department here on Wednesday. He said adherence to building code and relevant registrations were essential to restrict the losses to bare minimum level in the event such a mishap. The Chairman made it clear that under the law for environment protection, obtaining a NOC was a must before approving a building's map.
He observed that the concerned departments were not following this practice, and added that the officers, approving maps without NOC, would be brought to book. Dr Awais said location, building plan, height, design and provision for light, air, electricity, parking, roads, water supply, and effluent discharge etc, had a direct bearing over the environment.
In view of this, the provision of NOC had been introduced for ensuring environment-friendly building plans and their subsequent execution accordingly. He called upon the officers of the department to discharge their responsibilities dutifully and ensure implementation of the relevant legal requirements by the concerned map approval authorities.
According to him, it was not only their duty but also a moral and social obligation that they speeded up their efforts for initialising environment-friendly measures. The smoke emitting vehicles and industrial units contributed almost 80 percent towards pollution. He called upon the officials to speed up their efforts against such vehicles and industrial units and send a report to him.
He directed the Director General of EP Department to co-ordinate with the Transport and Excise and Taxation Departments and ask them not to renew the papers of smoke emitting vehicles at the time of annual renewal unless they got the vehicles repaired and the smoke emission confirmed to the permissible limits. Dr Awais said hardworking officials would be encouraged, while the work shirkers and inefficient ones would be sacked, purging the department of lethargic and inefficient officers.
He asked the Director General to introduce a proper monitoring and evaluation mechanism in the department and review the progress of every officer on monthly basis to weed out the inefficient people. Copies of such monthly reports should be sent to him as well, he directed. Those present in the meeting included EP Director General Shugufta Jabeen, Director Shahid Hussain, Deputy Directors Muhammad Yousuf, Naseem-ur-Rehman, Aamir Farooq and others concerned.