Illegal industrial units Decision on relocation today

[Salman]

RAWALPINDI, Oct 14: The City District Government Rawalpindi will decide about the fate of illegal industrial units located in the residential areas in the city on Monday (today).

On the directives of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar on September 29, the Rawal and Potohar town administrations, the labour department and the industries and enterprises department conducted a survey and found illegal industrial units which were also without fire safety measures.

The directives were issued after the fire incidents in Karachi and Lahore.

The local government departments submitted their survey report to the DCO on Saturday with a warning that lack of fire safety system and other security arrangements in the 99 illegal factories may cause a major tragedy.

According to the survey, over 99 unregistered factories were located in the thickly-populated areas of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, Bangash Colony, Dhoke Dalal and Bagh Sardarn.

These small-scale factories manufacture and prepare goods using chemicals and other inflammable material.

The report said the shortage of facilities in the factories increased the risk of fire incidents as most of them either had no firefighting system or were running with defective equipment. Besides, there were also no proper security arrangements.

There are 38 registered factories in the city areas and 29 in the cantonment. But these units have also failed to adopt proper fire safety system on their premises.

When contacted, the DCO said he had called the meeting of all the departments to find out a way to shift these industrial units from the city areas or close them to avoid any untoward situation.

He said the city government had three options: relocate the industrial units, ensure the fire safety measures or close them down.