These ‘tremors’ near Sukkur are a source of pain and money

Despite a ban on explosives, contractors continue to blast out rocks, causing considerable damage to nearby buildings.

SUKKUR:

The stone-crushing industry of Arore is a source of both pain and money for its residents.

Arore, located 25 kilometres away from Sukkur, is a hilly area rich in limestone and hard rock that are used mostly in the construction of roads. The mines and mineral development department has issued lease to contractors to break the rocks in certain areas, between Rohri in Sukkur district and Kotdiji in Khairpur district.

The contractor has to pay Rs10,000 as non-refundable fee and Rs150 per acre every year to work in the hilly region. The lease is renewed every year with instructions that the contractors will not use explosives to break the rocks, said Sukkur mineral development department’s assistant director, Asadullah Shah. They must break them manually, he stressed.

Since the manual extraction process is very slow and time-consuming, the contractors use explosives to blast the rocks - a practice banned by the district administration.



The residents told The Express Tribune that they have complained to the authorities but to no avail. “Our men and women work for these contractors but we are still against blasting,” said Mai Izzat Shaikh, a resident of Qadan Shaikh village. “Sometimes the explosions are so intense that it feels like an earthquake.”

Ghulam Mustafa Bango claimed that the blasting damaged a historical mosque, built by Mohammad Bin Qasim. Bango was sitting in his house a few days ago when he felt the ground beneath him jolt. “I immediately rushed out of the house, only to find out that they were blasting rocks nearby,” he said.

The caretaker of Kalka Mata temple in Arore, Jawahar Lal accused the contractors of ignoring the rules. The contractors are forbidden from blasting rocks near historical sites, villages and highways but they pay no heed, he said. The walls of the temple often develop cracks, he added.

Meanwhile, the same industry is also a source of income for several residents. Rahim Bux, Khadim and Manoo work for up to 12 hours for Rs300. The women are only paid Rs200 for the same work and time. The contractors take a worker to a nearby hospital in case of an accident and they even pay for the treatment, but they are not ready to pay for those labourers who fall sick from inhaling rock particles. The men are helpless. “We are working with these contractors for generations and this is the only work we know how to do.”



Rab Nawaz, a resident of Locoshed Rohri, has grown up listening to these explosions. He recalled the unfortunate incident two years ago when a girl was crushed under a roof that collapsed from an explosion. Often, pieces of flying rocks land at the highway or nearby villages and people get hurt, he said.

For their part, the contractors insisted that they use controlled explosives to blast stones, making sure they do not damage any buildings in the vicinity. Azmat Buriro, a manager for one of the contractors, admitted that the use of explosives is banned by the district administration. “Manual work takes a lot of time and yields little results.” The labourers are taken very good care of and given all facilities according to labour laws, he added.

Sukkur’s additional deputy commissioner Mubeen Elahi confirmed that the district administration gave permission to contractors to use explosives to break the rocks. After complaints from nearby villages, the administration has, however, stopped granting permission for the past one year or so.

The contractors have been strictly instructed to use manual methods, he said, warning that an inquiry will be conducted against those who continue to use explosives.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2013.