Pakistan blames India for cross-border pollution

A report in Pakistani English daily, Dawn, blames the Indian states for the “alarming situation in south and central (Pakistan) Punjab” as the region warms up to winter.

After cross-border terror, it’s cross-border pollution.

The report claimed 2,620 fire incidents had been spotted via satellite in Indian Punjab in 24 hours. (Representative image)

Pakistan on Friday blamed India for causing an “incursion of smoke” due to crop stubble burning and emissions of thermal power plants in the border states of Punjab and Rajasthan.

A report in Pakistani English daily, Dawn, blames the Indian states for the “alarming situation in south and central (Pakistan) Punjab” as the region warms up to winter.

“It is not good in Lahore. Environment protection department officials said control over local pollution contributions thinned the lower layer of smog though its upper layer thickened because of enhanced incursion of smoke and ash of the crop stubble being burnt on a large scale in adjoining Indian Punjab,” the report said.

An official said though emissions from the coal power project at Sahiwal in Pakistan was causing pollution, the four power plants in Indian Punjab and nine in Rajasthan were to blame for the worsening situation over four days.

“Crop stubble burning is causing smog over a large area in India, and media reports there say it has failed to control the pollution-causing practice despite public outcry and censure by courts,” the report said. It claimed that 2,620 fire incidents had been spotted via satellite in Indian Punjab in 24 hours. “There were just 27 cases of torching of crop residue in Pakistan’s Punjab,” it added.

The smog was particularly thick in Bahawalpur, Multan, Okara, Pakpattan, Chiniot and Faisalabad.

The smog was a concern in Pakistan Punjab last year too, irritating eyes and the throat besides causing breathing problems.

Rain is seen as the only way to clear the phenomenon but it is not forecast in a week.