LAHORE: In order to regulate the `unbridled` cement industry, the Punjab government has almost declared positive and negative (suitable or not) areas for cement factories initially in the Salt Range, forming a committee to probe the illegal expansion of the existing ones and proceed againstthosefound guilty.

The decisions to these effects were taken during a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif a few days ago. The meeting approved the report of an international consultant hired for the first time by any province in the country to delineate the negative and positive mining areas for installation of cement plants (in the Salt and the Trans-Indus Ranges).

One of the major concerns for ordering the study was the extraction of groundwater by the cement industry, creating its dearth for local residents, officials said, adding the chief minister made decisions in the light of the findings of the study. He ordered enforcement of the decisions all over the province so as to save groundwater for human consumption.

According to the minutes of the meeting obtained by Dawn, the chief minister agreed to the recommendations in principle and ordered further deliberations upon implementation of the study.

The proposal from the mines department was to declare the Salt Range into positive and negative zones as per the findings of the study for better regulating the cement industry which was deregulated in 1980.

Officials said extraction of underground water would be strictly banned in the negative areas where no further cement factory would be allowed. Those already established would be asked to arrange for river (Indus) water for themselves as was committed by them in the first place. They said there were factories which were extracting underground water with 15 or more tubewells, creating a dearth of it for local residents.

Officials said factories would be allowed to function in the positive areas conditionally, ensuring they would be environment centric. `The time to regulate the cement sector has come, especially to stop the exploitation of groundwater by them,` said a senior of ficial.

During the meeting the chief minister took a serious notice of reports of expansion in the capacity of the existing cement plants.

He ordered constitution of a committee comprising the CMIT chairman and ACE director general to probe into the matter and determine as to whether the expanded factories complied with the prescribed codal formalities or not.

The committee should also look into the arrangements carried out by the cement plants for the storage of solid and industrial waste, treatment of waste water and determination of any deviations from the prescribed regulations.

-Intikhab Hanif