Andhra Pradesh

Price rise hits hard granite workers

MUDIGONDA (Khammam dist): Chaval (rice) is now a luxury for us, but still we cannot do without it, says Ram Singh, a labour contractor from Kishangarh of Rajasthan, who has a group of eight men working for him in the granite units of Mudigonda.

Though members of his group generally do not take rice, they eat it one time a day as a substitute to roti as wheat flour costs more.

But eventually ‘chaval’ has become as dearer as ‘atta’ for the meagrely-paid workmen of their kind and hence they are keen on going back home. The polishing workers and cutting operators working in the local units hardly have an idea who the factory owner is. They are engaged by contractors and paid Rs. 7.25 per square foot.

“Every rupee matters for us and hence we don’t even watch movies,” says Narayan Singh, another worker from Rajasthan.

“The price rise has made a big impact on our lives. We switched over to rice may be once and for all. We will be happy if we are given rice at Rs. 2 a kg.”

There are workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa as well. We are now eligible for issue of white cards also, he says. Such facilities are must.

Large-scale operations by the granite units here need the support of man power on a large scale. It is time to consider hike in wages as well, says Lakshmaiah Naidu, a contract worker from Srikakulam.

The granite workers, who have the white ration cards, are also not fully happy. “The subsidised rice is of little help for my family says,” Pasangula Rama Rao, a resident of Vallapuram village working as a stone cutting operator in a granite unit here.

His wife Nagamani too earns Rs. 50 a day working the fields.

The rice consumption of his four-member family is in the order of 35 kg a month.

He claims to be buying some 15 kg of rice from the market at Rs. 22 a kg.

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