Stone quarry owners call off stir, resume ops

BENGALURU: Stone quarries and crusher units across the state resumed operations on Saturday after the Federation of Karnataka Quarry and Stone Crusher Owners’ Association withdrew their strike. The association, which launched the strike on December 21, had stopped operations at 2,800 stone quarries and 1,980 stone crusher units impacting various development works across the state, including Bengaluru.

Ravindra Shetty, president of the association said they withdrew the strike after CM Basavaraj Bommai held talks with them on Friday following which they resumed work from Saturday morning. “The CM is convinced that our demands are justified and he assured us that the government will consider them,” Shetty told TNSE on Saturday.

He said that many development works including the preparations for Aero India in Bengaluru were hit due to the strike. “It is a very prestigious event and any impact on it will be a black spot on the state’s image”, he said.

Shetty said among the demands made are scrapping of double collection of royalty from crushers and contractors and putting off the drone survey by Karnataka Remote Sensing Authority till the government amended rules and increased their permit limit.