The mining scam in Orissa has taken its toll on the granite processing industries in south Orissa's Ganjam district.
Of the 35 granite processing units in the district, five have closed their shutters due to the shortage of raw materials while some units have reduced their period of operations, said Santosh Kumar Bebarta, secretary of Ganjam Granite Cluster.
“Although the raw material is available in plenty in the state, it could not be mined due to delay in paper work by the department of mines. Also, the process to lease out the mines to the entrepreneurs has almost stopped since the mining scam surfaced”, he alleged.
Bebarta pointed out that several entrepreneurs have been waiting for months to get the prospecting license.
B B Dhal, general, general manager, District Industry Centre (Ganjam), however, said he had no information on the closure of the granite processing units due to the shortage of raw materials.
Biswanath Mohanty, the district mining officer ruled out the possibility of closure of the granite processing units because of shortage of raw materials.
He said, several entrepreneurs had taken the mining lease for 20-30 years.
Meanwhile, Bebarta said that while some granite processing units have been closed, some other units have managed to run for a few hours by procuring raw materials from other states. If this situation continues for some more days, most of the granite processing units will be forced to down their shutters, he warned.
Besides Ganjam, the granite processing units in other districts of the state are also facing a similar situation.
