Winter holidays extended for Lahore schools as smog blankets the city
Punjab to use drones with night vision cameras to detect smoke-emitting units
The Lahore High Court (LHC) yesterday ordered a seven-day extension in winter holidays across Lahore’s educational institutions due to the prevailing smog conditions in the city and its adjoining areas.
The Punjab School Department had on December 14 announced weeklong winter vacations for public and private schools in the province from December 24.
Schools and colleges were to resume classes from January 2. However, the court has ordered seven days’ extension of holidays for Lahore’s educational institutions.
Meanwhile, a report was also submitted before the court according to which the Punjab government had approved a project to procure 200 drone cameras under a World Bankfunded programme.
It said modern drones with night-vision cameras could be programmed to report smoke emissions even during nighttime.
Automated
The report added that longrange pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras do not require human control and can automatically detect and record certain emissions from up to 3,000 metres’ distance.
It proposed the installation of the PTZ cameras in smog hotspots in Lahore including in Mehmood Booti, Karol Ghati, Lakhodair, Turkey Road, Ring Road, Multan Road and Bund Road.
Last week, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had directed authorities to propose to the school education department a two-week winter vacation as a step to curb smog in Lahore.
The court had also ordered the closure of schools on Fridays and Saturdays.
While hearing the public interest petitions on different environmental issues yesterday, Justice Shahid Kareem of the LHC observed that vacations in schools and colleges ought to be extended due to the persistent smog.
A representative of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), told the court that letters had been written to satellite channels to run advertisements for the awareness and prevention of smog.
Under control
The court remarked that the smog was under control to a considerable extent. However, it said, the prevention of smog was the responsibility of the government.
The judge also summoned the Director General of the Pakistan Disaster Management Authority for the next hearing on January 6.
Smog continued to disrupt flight operations in Pakistan and yesterday, too, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) diverted Lahore-bound international flights to Islamabad, which caused delays in the arrival of flights as well as checkouts at the Islamabad International Airport (IIA).
At the IIA, too, the CAA has devised a plan for the arrival of smog-diverted flights.
According to officials, the CAA and airlines have taken joint steps to facilitate safe air travel for passengers as a hazardous levels of dense fog affects visibility in several cities of Punjab.
For this purpose, authorities have worked out a schedule for the arrival of flights.
As per the schedule, a total of 33 such flights will be operated from the airport at present.
The diverted flights include 16 international and domestic departures and 17 arrivals.
Schools and colleges were to resume classes from January 2. However, the court has ordered seven days’ extension in holidays for Lahore’s educational institutions.