Director General (DG) Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) on Friday asked representatives of five textile mills operating in District Malir to appear in person before him for not 'fully complying' with the environmental laws, on February 19.

The SEPA officials said that DG Naeem Ahmed Mughal paid a surprise visit to five textile mills and monitored their production activities with regard to environmental standards.

They said none of the five mills was fully complying with the environmental laws of Sindh and most of their environmental affairs were not up to the mark.

He said the DG also asked mills about their mandatory environmental approval before establishing their operational setup and also investigated if their effluent is being treated as per the required standard before its release into the water bodies. None of the mills could give satisfactory answer to the above questions which implied that they were not fully complying with the environmental standards of the province.

It may be pointed out that under Sections 11 and 14 of the Sindh Environmental Protection Act 2014 all industries are bound to treat their effluent and wastewater before releasing it into the water bodies. In case of non-compliance, they may be fined and on their continued violations their operations may be stopped.