Lahore: Punjab Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique has ordered stronger preventive measures ahead of the smog season, directing sanitation agencies to avoid raising road dust and ensure that road cleaning is carried out through mechanical sweeping with water. The directions were issued during a meeting at the Civil Secretariat reviewing possible smog risks and Suthra Punjab operations.
The minister also warned that if garbage burning is reported in an area, action will be taken against the relevant tehsil manager. Each Field Monitoring Officer (FMO) has been assigned 24 operational beats and has been directed to visit at least 12 beats daily. The latest meeting report also says FMO performance will undergo third-party validation, while district managing directors will be reviewed individually.
The anti-dust direction is consistent with earlier pre-smog instructions issued during recent field inspections, where sanitation teams were told to avoid creating dust and use mechanical sweeping. Punjab’s official Suthra Punjab system also operates through district and tehsil-level monitoring, digital supervision and field-service tracking.
These are currently operational and monitoring directions under the sanitation programme, not a separately identified new smog law or gazette notification.
