Labourer earning ₹300 per day finds diamond worth ₹80 lakh in Madhya Pradesh | Trending

A labourer from Madhya Pradesh says his life has changed forever after unearthing a massive diamond in the state’s famous Panna mines. Last week, Raju Gond discovered a 19.22-carat diamond that is expected to fetch around ₹80 lakh in a government auction. A labourer digs a shallow diamond mine in Panna (Representational image)(HT Archive) Gond, 40, works as a daily wage earner to provide for his family, according to a CNN report. He usually earns around ₹300 per day working in fields or driving tractors for wealthier farmers in Madhya Pradesh. Sometimes, however, Raju Gond and his brother pay ₹800 a day to dig for gold in a 690-square-foot plot of government land. It was here that they stumbled upon the stunning gemstone last Wednesday. “It shone spectacularly; I knew it was a diamond right then!” a delighted Gond told CNN. For the daily wage earner, the discovery was all the more sweet for the fact that it took him a decade to find a diamond – “I worked the whole afternoon to get this stone. But I had worked for 10 years to get to this point,” he was quoted as saying the Indian Express. Raju and Rakesh Gond immediately took the diamond to the local Panna Diamond Office to have it evaluated. Anupam Singh, the official diamond examiner, told CNN that the 19.22 carat diamond is expected to fetch around ₹80 lakh. “In 1961 someone found a 54.55-carat diamond, then in 2018 someone found a 42-carat diamond, and now this,” Singh explained. A life-changing discoveryFor 10 years, Gond had been searching the diamond reserves of Panna in vain hopes of finding a gemstone. “What we have to do is fill in a form, give identification proof, provide photos and pay 800 rupees to the government,” he explained. “When we are done searching there we can apply again to search for diamonds on another patch of land.” The massive rock signifies a turn of fortune for the Madhya Pradesh native, especially at a time when large diamond discoveries have become extremely rare. “I want to take care of my children’s education. All I hope is that with this, my financial hardship will ease,” he told the Indian Express. His first plan of action is to pay off the ₹5 lakh loan hanging over his family’s head. He also wants to build a home and buy some farmland with the proceeds of the sale. It is not immediately clear how much he will receive after government royalty and taxes are deducted.