Such factories not only contribute in spreading various deadly diseases, they also pose a direct threat to the lives of the patients. Most of these chemical factories have been set up just 50 to 100 feet from the hospital’s boundary wall and in the middle of the residential blocks. These are constantly omitting smoke, which again is spreading different dangerous diseases even among the hospital employees and the nearby residents.
Smoke, which is a major source of environmental pollution, is non-stop creating suffocation for the entire area. Further, noise from the heavy machinery installed in the factories is also a major source of mental health of the people of the area. The factories have been established by the business community in the residential locality, adjacent to the Bilal Ganj scrap market, in sheer violation of the Environment Protection Laws and bylaws of the City District Government Lahore, and the practice (of setting up factories) is going on unchecked. Atop of it is the negligent attitude of the hospital’s administration which had never complained to the Environment Protection Agency or the CDG authorities about this menace.
The locals told this scribe that they have sent many complaints to the EPA, who marked their applications to District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zam for taking a proper action against the violators, but all in vain. The authorities seem reluctant in taking a legal action against the factory owners because they are very influential,” one resident complained.
However, the authorities of concerned department sent officials for probing the matter, but they also were hesitating to interrogate the owners, he added.
The other residents said that a couple of days ago Fiaz Ali Khan, a resident of Street No. 7, Mohni Road, requested the owners of a chemical factory, Sheikh Jamil and Sheikh Babar, to have some mercy upon them (residents) and the patients of the TB Hospital and shift his factory from the current site. But strangely the Sheikhs scuffled with Khan, and the local police, without probing the matter, arrested both Khan and Sheikh Jamil.
A number of residents, including Shahid Hussain, Mehmood Ahmad, Hanif Mir, Muhammad Nadeem, Shahzad, Faizan, Pervaiz, Maqsood, Muhammad Basheer, Mehran Bibi and Kausar Bibi while talking to TheNation said that Sheikh Jamil and Sheikh Babar are running a chemical factory from a couple of years just 50 feet from the TB Hospital.
When tried to contact DO (Environment) Tariq Zaman for his version, one of his subordinates said he has gone abroad on an official tour. “No acting in-charge has so far been assigned by the higher authorities to replace Zaman,” he added.
