MP farmer mines 6.47-carat diamond; sixth success in two years
For the sixth time in two years, a farmer in the Panna district of Madhya Pradesh has mined a high-quality diamond - this time weighing 6.47 carat - in land taken on lease from the government. "The farmer, Prakash Majumdar, found this diamond from a mine in Jaruapur village in the district on Friday," said Nutan Jain, in charge diamond officer.
Diamond will be put up for sale in upcoming auction
"The 6.47 carat diamond will be put up for sale in the upcoming auction and the price will be fixed as per the government guidelines," she said. Majumdar said that he will share the amount received from the auction with his four partners engaged in quarrying the mine. "We deposited the 6.47 carat diamond at the Government Diamond Office," he added.
Proceeds would be given to farmer after deduction of taxes
He said that he had found a 7.44 carat diamond last year. Besides, he had also mined four other precious stones weighing two to 2.5 carat in the past two years. Officials said that the raw diamond would be auctioned and the proceeds would be given to the farmer after deduction of government royalty and taxes.
Panna is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12L carats
As per the private estimates, the 6.47-carat diamond is likely to fetch around Rs. 30 lakh in the auction. Panna district is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12 lakh carats. The state government gives small patches of land on lease in the Panna diamond reserve area to local farmers and laborers to mine diamonds and deposit them with the district mining officer.
Another farmer had mined diamond worth Rs. 60L last year
Notably, last year another farmer from Panna district, Lakhan Yadav, had mined a 14.98-carat diamond worth Rs. 60 lakh in a land that he had taken on lease from the government for Rs. 200, according to The Times of India.
