Granite Mines

Recently a few red granite mines, bringing in hundreds of crore of rupees in foreign exchange, were closed in Karnataka by the government. The reason being personal vendetta involving the prime minister and his sons, and leading granite exporters. The reasons for this are too well known. The government has acquired these mines by a notice claiming it to be government land when for last 129 years the land has been either with present owners or their predecessors. Now the matter is in the hands of court where law will take its own course and time. Till then thousands of workers, their families and small factories which source their raw material from these mines have to suffer.

 

Even if it is government land, the government will be granting leases and collecting royalties whi-ch in any case they had been getting from the mineowners. Why this exercise then? The present owners have put in lot of finances and hard work in developing quarries which the government wants to grab. Unless our leaders graduate from personalism to patriotism, the country has no future.