PANNA: A farmer in Madhya Pradesh had a great stroke of luck as he stumbled upon a 11.88 carat good quality diamond in a small, leased mine in Panna, famous for diamond mines.
The small-time farmer, Pratap Singh Yadav, who also works as a labourer, found this diamond from a mine in Patti area in the district, diamond officer Ravi Patel told reporters on Wednesday.
This good quality diamond will be put up for sale in the upcoming auction and the price will be fixed as per the government guidelines.
Talking to reporters, Yadav said, "I am a poor man with a small agricultural land. I also work as a labourer. I have been working hard in this mine for the past three months and got this diamond and deposited it to the Diamond Office."
The money received from the auction of this diamond will be used for setting up a business and to fund the education of his children.
According to private estimates, the diamond may fetch more than Rs 50 lakh at the auction.
Officials said that the raw diamond would be auctioned and the proceeds would be given to the farmer after deduction of the government royalty and taxes.
Panna district is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12 lakh carats.