Panna (TIP): For the sixth time in two years, a farmer in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh has mined a high-quality diamond – this time weighing 6.47 carat – in a land taken on lease from the government.

Prakash Majumdar found the diamond from a mine at Jaruapur village on Friday, said Nutan Jain, in-charge diamond officer. The 6.47 carat diamond would be put up for sale in the upcoming auction and the price would be fixed as per the government guidelines, she said.

Majumdar said he would share the amount received from the auction with his four partners engaged in quarrying the mine.

“We are five partners. We got the diamond weighing 6.47 carat, which we deposited at the Government Diamond Office,” he told reporters on Friday.

He said he had found a 7.44 carat diamond last year. Besides, he had also mined four other precious stones weighing 2 to 2.5 carat in the past two years. Officials said the raw diamond would be auctioned and the proceeds would be given to the farmer after deduction of government royalty and taxes.

As per the private estimates, the 6.47 carat diamond is likely to fetch around Rs 30 lakh.

Panna district is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12 lakh carat. The state government gives small patches of land on lease in Panna diamond reserve area to local farmers and labourers to mine diamonds and deposit them with the district mining officer.   Source: PTI