Punjab’s Environment and Climate Change Directorate has constituted two committees to explore all possibilities of increasing the green cover and check the dust emissions in Mandi Gobindgarh town.

Informing this, the Tandrust Punjab mission director Kahan Singh Pannu said that a meeting was held with all the stakeholders or departments of Mandi Gobindgarh area to identify the sources of air pollution and measures required to control it.

“It is realized that a significant role in air pollution of Mandi Gobindgarh area is that of road dust. The poor

conditions of the internal roads and the unpaved road shoulders emit dust due to heavy vehicular movement. So, it was decided that Municipal Council, Mandi Gobindgarh, and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) will do the

mapping of all dust emitting spots in Mandi Gobindgarh area and see that the necessary work to control the dust emission may be done by the concerned departments in a time bound manner,” he said.

Pannu said that it was decided to constitute a Committee that shall identify all the dust emitting points in the town and shall mark them on the map and submit the Action Plan for stabilization of the dust emitting points in a time bound manner.

“Besides, it was agreed upon that to control pollution, green cover in Mandi Gobindgarh may be increased to a significant level,” he said.

Since, sufficient free area is available in the industries and other public places for plantation, so it was decided that Municipal Council, Mandi Gobindgarh, and the state Forest Department will do the mapping of all the space available in the town so that the green cover in Mandi Gobindgarh may be increased to contain pollution within prescribed limits, he said.

It was also decided that another committee may be constituted which shall identify all the space available for plantation in Mandi Gobindgarh area and shall mark them on a map and submit the Action Plan for plantation, added Pannu.

The Committee constituted to identify the space available for plantation in Mandi Gobindgarh area includes the Environment and Climate Change director as chairman, Amloh Sub-Divisional Magistrate, and PPCB Zonal Office-II Senior Environmental Engineer, as members. Besides, PPCB’s Fatehgarh Sahib regional office’s environmental engineer, would be a member and convenor of the Committee along with the MC’s executive officer, PWD (B&R) Executive Officer, and Mandi Gobindgarh’s District Forest Officer, as Members.