Islamabad: The Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul on Friday announced that her ministry would soon take definitive action against the housing societies found involved in the violation of environmental laws and the usage of the city’s green belts for commercial activities — a news source reported.
Speaking to a news agency, she said that the majority of housing societies used greenbelts as commercial plots. She further said that the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was holding public hearings on development projects and housing societies, and that the ministry would empower the environmental agency to take stringent action against violators.
She added that these unlawful societies were in the habit of getting no-object certificates (NOC)s from the EPA by claiming that certain areas would be used as parks and greenbelts in the environmental impact assessment reports. However, later areas were instead used for commercial purposes. Now, such housing societies will now have their NOCs cancelled if such violations are found on their premises.
