Srinagar, Apr 14: The stone crushing industry in Jammu and Kashmir, considered the backbone of infrastructure development across the Union Territory, is facing a severe and prolonged crisis, with nearly 1000 units lying non-functional due to the non-availability of raw material.
The sector, which supports tens of thousands of livelihoods directly and indirectly, has come to a standstill not because of a lack of demand or capacity, but due to policy changes that have disrupted its core supply chain.
The roots of this crisis lie in the policy shift undertaken post-2019.
Earlier, stone crusher units operated under a regulated system where raw material consumption was assessed and royalty was charged accordingly.
Monthly permits ensured a degree of oversight while maintaining continuity of operations.
While concerns of underreporting may have existed, the system ensured uninterrupted supply of raw material, keeping the industry functional and aligned with developmental needs.
Instead of reforming and strengthening this mechanism, the Government opted for a complete overhaul – transitioning to an outsourced model of extraction through e-tendered contracts.
Simultaneously, a blanket restriction was imposed on traditional over-ground quarrying sources that earlier met the bulk of demand. The new system fragmented the supply chain, placing raw material extraction and processing into separate silos, thereby making stone crushing units dependent on third-party contractors for their most basic input.
This shift has fundamentally altered the operational landscape.
What was once a single-layer regulatory system has now evolved into a multi-layered compliance regime.
Not only do extraction contractors require environmental clearances, but stone crusher units themselves continue to be subject to separate regulatory approvals.
The duplication of processes has added complexity, increased delays, and created uncertainty – directly contradicting the stated objective of Ease of Doing Business.
The consequences are now visible on the ground.
With environmental clearances for extraction having expired in December 2025, raw material supply has come to a complete halt. For the past several months, there has been no legally accessible source of stone for crushing units.
The result is an industry-wide shutdown, with units lying idle, workers disengaged, and machinery rendered unproductive.
This disruption has had a cascading impact. Construction activities, both public and private, have slowed down, while the limited stock of available aggregates is being sold at sharply inflated prices.
Ironically, while the shift to e-tendering may have increased royalty collections in the short term, it has simultaneously escalated the cost of public infrastructure projects, negating any fiscal gains.
The government, in effect, pays more for the same materials it sought to regulate more efficiently.
More critically, the policy has created supply bottlenecks by limiting the number of extraction points.
Entire districts now depend on a handful of designated mineral parcels, placing immense pressure on already constrained sources.
In a region with a short working season for construction, such disruptions carry disproportionate economic costs.
Equally concerning is the regulatory environment surrounding the industry. Classified under the “Orange Category,” stone crushing units continue to face procedural hurdles in obtaining and renewing consents, despite widespread compliance with environmental norms.
The absence of designated zones for such activity further compounds the problem, leaving units caught between operational necessity and regulatory uncertainty.
What emerges is a pattern of policy without pragmatism.
Instead of ensuring regulated access to raw material, the system has created scarcity. Instead of simplifying compliance, it has multiplied it.
And instead of strengthening a critical industry, it has rendered it dependent and dysfunctional.
At the centre of this unfolding crisis is the Industries and Commerce Department – the very institution tasked with nurturing and sustaining industrial activity.
Its silence in the face of the prolonged inactivity of nearly 1000 units is not merely administrative indifference, it reflects a deeper disconnect between policy intent and ground reality.
Ease of Doing Business cannot be measured through notifications and portals while core industries remain non-functional.
It must be reflected in uninterrupted operations, rational regulation, and timely policy response.
When an industry so vital to development is forced into inactivity for want of raw material, the claim of ease stands fundamentally compromised.
What Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing today is not just a sectoral disruption, it is the breakdown of a system that failed to anticipate, adapt, and act.
