Sikandra is home to magnificent sculptures and crafts made of stone. Tourists — both domestic and foreign — throng shops along the National Highway 11 leading to Agra for their collection of exquisite work of arts.Shop-owners and traders, however, are unhappy. They claim that they are reeling under the “twin shocks of demonitisation and GST” and are finding it difficult to sustain. The recent ban on sand mining has given body blow as construction business is badly hit, they say.The people who had to bear the brunt of these decisions are the labourers who are employed in the stone sculpture and construction business. The slump in demand hit employment as hiring of labourers has drastically reduced, said Shabhu Dayal, working at a stone craft shop.Stone craft industry is one of the main stay of this area as the pink stone from Pahadpur in Dholpur is one of the most sought after ones for stone sculpture.“If the note ban had taken away the liquidity from the market, the high GST on stone had jacked up prices of finished products,” Ram Karan of Sharda Stones tells TOI. He adds raw stones attract 5% GST while finished products 18%, making products costly and keeping buyers away.“Rajasthan is known for its stones. But they are heavily taxed. Royalty, GST and harassment by the police and the transport department in the name of overloading have hit hard the industry,” says Ramkaran Saini of Sharda Stones.He said the business had gone down by about 60 to 70%. We were able to survive, says Saini pointing to sculptures waiting for customers.The ban on bajri (sand) has also hit the real estate industry. “Bajri is banned. Despite the ban it is easily available at a higher price. The prices of a truck full of bajri have gone up to Rs 20,000, making them unaffordable,” says Vijay Kumar of Jai Mata Di Stones.

Stay updated with all the Latest Jaipur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.