Thousands despair as Adani plants shut down in Indian state – Saudi Gazette

Thousands despair as Adani plants shut down in Indian state – Saudi Gazette

SHIMLA — "I don't know what our fault is. What have we done to deserve this?" says a distraught Kanta Sharma, pointing to a shuttered cement plant in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

It's one of two plants - the other is located around 48km (30 miles) away - in Darlaghat that were shut down in December by their owner, Adani Group, leaving thousands of locals without work.

Since her husband died in 2009, Ms Sharma has depended entirely on the plant to make a living. She took a loan and dipped into her savings to purchase a truck to transport cement and raw material to and from the plant. The little land the family owned was acquired when the plant was built.

The Adani Group owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, the world's third richest man, acquired the factories in September, but soon ended up in a dispute with local transport unions over freight charges. The company said operations had become "unviable" because of the losses it was incurring due to "high transportation costs".

The stand-off has not just affected the 2,000-3,000 people who were directly employed by these plants, but also thousands of others.

"About 10,000-15,000 people are indirectly dependent on these