This refers to the news report "JK’s Sapphire treasure trove untapped” (GK, 15-July, 2012). This is another of several examples to show how we all are victims of government’s lack of planning. It is slightly surprising that the smugglers are able to extract the precious stones with their bare hands while the State claims not to have enough resources and technology to do the extraction. Is it that the government doesn't really have technology to do the extraction or government doesn't want to do the extraction, because some vested interests want it to continue this way. If we don't have technology, what prevents us from developing one? Even if done over several years, it is worth doing. If our mining engineers, who come out from our engineering colleges, don't know how we can tap our State's own mineral resources, then there is a need to revamp their curriculum. We should tie up with an external agency only if we are very sure about what we are doing, so that we don't land up in a power sector type of a situation, where our power resources are looted from our state.

Yaqoob Bashir Qadri
Bangalore

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
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