COURTS and commissions have often been up in arms over the health and ecological hazards associated with stone-crushing. Yet concern fades with the headlines. The Lahore High Court, noting a shockingly high fatality rate among labourers exposed to crystalline silica dust, categorised Punjab’s unfettered stone-crushing industry as a “public-health and labour rights emergency”. In his scorching criticism, the judge observed that progress remains absent due to state negligence even as multiple workers perish without........

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