The Bangalore Urban Stone Crushers and Quarry Owners Association on Tuesday demanded that the government stop collecting royalty retrospectively from 1996.
Members of the association have been protesting since December 21 and, along with the stone quarry workers, have stayed away from work since then.
Association president D Siddaraju told DH that the ongoing strike had adversely affected the construction industry due to the abrupt spike in the cost of jelly stones (gravel) and other products required for road laying and other construction work.
He said that first the government should stop collecting double royalty. “Asking us to pay royalty retrospectively, amounts to collecting royalty twice,” he said.
The association’s other demands are: to bring in an amendment to the Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1994, and to withdraw drone survey of crushers as proposed by the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre.
Lorry Owners Association president Shanmugappa has extended his support to the protest.
There are 2,400 crushers in the state and around 25 lakh people work in the industry directly and indirectly. Bengaluru accounts for more than 1.5 lakh of the workforce.
Published 04 January 2023, 22:17 IST