BENGALURU: The stone quarry and crusher industry, which has been shut for the last five days, has rejected the government’s plea to reopen, even though Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhu Swamy announced in the Assembly on Monday that an all-party meeting will be convened to discuss issues related to the industry.
Ravindra Shetty, president of the Federation of Karnataka Quarry and Stone Crusher Owners’ Association, said, “We have raised a few issues, including one nation, one tax which our PM Narendra Modi has spoken about. The government has collected royalty and revenues from the industry earlier, and how can they collect double royalty and revenue now? They should not impose any additional burden on us.
The laws and rules need to be suitably amended. They have to decide this in the cabinet and bring out a gazette notification complying with our demands. Till such time, our protest will continue and the quarries and crushers will remain closed.”
He said, “The government has got the Karnataka Remote Sensing authorities to carry out a study. We want them to conduct the exercise again. We will reopen after they comply. We are going ahead with a massive protest on December 28. We also want to inform Union Minister Nitin Gadkari about this standoff.’’
Stone quarries and crushers have stopped operating over the royalty and revenue issues, causing a severe shortage of construction material in the market.
The protest has also severely affected development works. On Monday, the issue was raised by Congress MLA Krishna Byre Gowda in the Assembly, saying the government in 2017 imposed a penalty of 1:5, based on how much of mineral was extracted, and only around Rs 500 crore was collected. If the ratio is brought down to 1:1, the government can increase its revenue collection to Rs 1,000 crore, he suggested. Some units that were fined smaller amounts have paid, while those with bigger penalties have chosen to evade payments, he pointed out.
Madu Swamy said, “We will find it difficult to waive off this huge amount of money. We can call an all-party meeting to decide on the issue. I will inform the chief minister.”