Govt will bail out granite companies, assures Harish

Khammam: Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said that the state government would help the granite companies in bringing them out of the present crisis by fulfilling their demands. Addressing a meeting with the members of the Granite Slabs Association here at the Sequel Hall here on Tuesday, he said thousands of people are dependent on the granite industry for their livelihood.

He said that there were around 450 granite quarries in Khammam district. However, only 200-250 were functioning, as several of them were in deep financial crisis, he added. Recently, the members of the Granite Slab Association had come up with few demands to save the granite companies in the district.

They said that they were facing problems in running the companies on generators due to lack of adequate power supply, the government decided to give uninterrupted power supply without imposing any power-cuts. The Minister said that the previous governments had supplied them power for three days in a week, but the Telangana government purchased power at cost of Rs. 110 crore from the neighbouring state to save industries in the State.

They also told the Minister that it was becoming difficult to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) as the District Collector was busy. The government had already issued the orders to the District Collectors to give permission to the MROs to give NOCs to the granite companies.