• Lahore remains one of the world’s most polluted cities.
• Citizens complain about irritation in throat, burning of eyes.
• EPA not taking effective measures to tackle smog, say sources.

LAHORE: As Lahore remains one of the most polluted cities of the world, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar assured the Punjab government of taking up the issue of the smog caused by the burning of crops with India at the diplomatic level.

The prime minister, who chaired the meeting of Punjab cabinet on Monday, was told by interim Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi that the main reason for the spread of smog in Lahore was the burning of residues of crops in Indian Punjab.

Data collected from IQAir revealed that with an AQI of 279, Lahore remained on the top of the world most polluted cities the second consecutive day on Monday.

Lahore witnessed a hazy day and a number of citizens while talking to The News complained about irritation in throat, burning of eyes and difficulty in breathing.

They demanded the caretaker chief minister announce holidays in schools as this kind of atmosphere was very dangerous for the schoolchildren.

The citizens also appealed to the chief minister to ban all kind of ongoing on scheduled construction activities in the city for the next two months as these sites were becoming major source of PM2.5.

Sources in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed that use of substandard fuel such as plastic and rubber especially in cottage industry around Bund Road was contributing a lot to increasing the smog. They said the EPA was not taking effective measures to tackle this issue and just eye-washing measures were being taken.

Sources further added that vehicular pollution was also one of the major contributor of the smog but no strict action was being taken against smoke-emitting vehicles.

They claimed that the vehicles owned by public departments such as LWMC, Wasa, LDA, MCL, C&W lacked fitness certificates and were never checked by the traffic police and transport department.

Sources added that the machines used by the EPA to monitor the air quality were also not calibrated, which was due, so the data provided by them was not reliable.

Met officials said continental air was prevailing over most parts of country. They predicted that mainly dry weather was expected in most parts of country while cold and partly cloudy in upper parts.