RAWALPINDI, Aug 23: The district government has directed the managements of industrial units located within the city to shift them outside the populated areas before November 30.

The units failing to comply with these instructions would be sealed, a notification issued in this regard warned. Moreover, setting up of any new unit within the city limits has been banned with immediate effect.

The district government had decided to shift industrial units out of the city limits in a bid to check industrial pollution. A committee headed by the tehsil municipal officer has been set up to implement the decision.

An official explained that this restriction did not only apply to areas falling within the city limits, but also extended to thickly populated union councils located on the outskirts of the city. Such areas include Shakrial East and West, Gangal and Dhamial.

Similar actions in the past have gone unheeded. District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani hoped that factory owners would voluntarily accept the decision and shift outside the city. However, in case of any defiance strict action would be taken, the Nazim warned.

He said the presence of factories in the over-populated parts of the cities was not only causing pollution, but also resulting in the outbreak of diseases particularly asthma and other chest infections.

The factory owners are playing with the lives of the people and we expect that they would realize their responsibility and try to make mends by leaving their existing premises immediately, he added.

According to an official report there are about 1,200 licenced industries in the inner parts of the city, which are predominantly residential areas. The number of unregistered ones is far more than registered ones and there is apparently no record of such units.

The unregistered ones do not have any sort of permission from the Environment Protection Agency, Department of Industries or Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA).

Most of these units in non-formal sector are small to medium sized cottage industries and are scattered all over the city. The industries in the non-formal sector, the report says, are generating hazardous waste and causing air pollution through emission, creating physical and environmental problems.

Such industries include leather and tanning, shoe-making, food processing, dying, plastics, auto-workshops, polyethylene, paints manufacturing, plastic utensils, fire crackers, soaps, detergents, electronics and fabric paintings.

These units create both noise, air and water pollution. The industry indiscriminately releases carcinogens such as asbestos and soot, particulate matter and noxious gases into the air causing air quality to decline and increasing the incidence of respiratory diseases.