Port Blair, Aug 17:The Member of Parliament of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma has requested the Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Administration to resume extraction of quarry products from quarries of N & M Andaman to minimize the sufferings of the residents and give momentum to economic activities in the region.
In a letter addressed to the Chief secretary the Member of Parliament mentioned that this has adversely affected the Construction Industry, as many of the Private and Govt. Contracts in the construction sector have no works, as a result of which, a sizable chunk of the population whose livelihood are dependent on this sector, now remain unemployed.
He added that the entrepreneurs and the workers belonging to construction and other related sectors have already had a very difficult time in the recent past on account of recurrent lockdowns imposed by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration to contain the spread of Covid-19. They could barely overcome the constraints induced by the lockdown due to Covid-19 and now non-availability of quarry products has severely hampered their recovery phase towards normalcy.
The Member of Parliament mentioned that the residents of North & Middle Andaman district are facing tremendous hardship to construct their own dwelling units due to high cost of stone aggregates importing from mainland as they are not able to bear such high cost for purchasing stone quarry which costs around Rs. 4000 – 5000 per Cbm of stone aggregates as of now, which is appears to be much high compared with stone aggregates if import from locally stone quarry.
He said that this cost escalation has happened due to a ban on extraction of quarry products locally. Now quarry materials are not only beyond the reach of ordinary general public but the livelihood of the workers engaged in these sectors has also been adversely affected since Covid-19, the MP added.