“I do not know what our fault is. What have we performed to deserve this?” says a distraught Kanta Sharma, pointing to a shuttered cement plant within the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

It is certainly one of two vegetation – the opposite is situated round 48km (30 miles) away – in Darlaghat that had been shut down in December by their proprietor, Adani Group, leaving hundreds of locals with out work.

Since her husband died in 2009, Ms Sharma has depended fully on the plant to make a residing. She took a mortgage and dipped into her financial savings to buy a truck to move cement and uncooked materials to and from the plant. The little land the household owned was acquired when the plant was constructed.

The Adani Group – owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest man – purchased the factories in September, however quickly ended up in a dispute with native transport unions over freight expenses. The corporate stated operations had turn out to be “unviable” due to the losses it was incurring as a result of “excessive transportation prices”.

The stand-off has not simply affected the two,000-3,000 individuals who had been immediately employed by these vegetation, but in addition hundreds of others.

“About 10,000-15,000 individuals are not directly depending on these vegetation, together with truck operators, drivers, cleaners, [workers at] roadside eateries and car restore garages,” stated RD Nazeem, the state’s industries and transport secretary.

“These are individuals who grew to become landless and homeless as a result of they gave their lands for these factories.”

Transport enterprise within the space is dominated by native folks, lots of whom gave up their fertile farmlands when the vegetation had been being constructed within the Nineties.

They charged near 11 rupees (13 cents; 11 pence) per tonne of cement per kilometre, however the Adani group desires this to be decreased to 6 rupees. Transporters say the freight expenses are truthful due to rising gasoline costs.

The Adani Group instructed the BBC that it desires “to proceed its operations in each places if it will get the required assist from transporters”. It added that it is “unlucky” that “native transport unions do not permit different transporters to function at aggressive charges”.

“The agency ought to be free to interact vans wherever they’re wanted to facilitate transportation, thus guaranteeing a free market strategy to greatest serve our shoppers,” it stated.

The agency stated that it “needs to proceed its operations in each places if it will get the required assist from transporters”.

Locals argue that they need to have the primary proper to function vans for these vegetation since they gave up their “fertile land” for them.

“Individuals residing in these areas invested their meagre financial savings into shopping for vans in order that they may transport materials from this plant,” says Mahesh Kumar, a neighborhood resident. “With the plant shut, their future hangs within the stability.”

Land was purchased to arrange the cement vegetation in Darlaghat within the early Nineties.

“Cultivable land was acquired for 62,000 rupees per bigha (a neighborhood unit of measurement equalling round 0.2 acres) whereas non-cultivable lands was acquired for 19,000 rupees,” says Paras Thakur, a neighborhood resident.

At the moment, locals hoped that the factories would assist their kids get jobs in order that they did not need to journey far in quest of jobs.

Mr Thakur says that regardless of over 1,400 acres of land being acquired from 5 villages since 1992, members of solely 72 households obtained jobs on the vegetation.

The Adani Group stated that 143 staff from the 2 vegetation are being relocated to the opposite vegetation owned by the agency to guard their jobs.

“We used to develop every kind of crops. We used to develop corn, wheat and every kind of pulses. Right this moment, we remorse having given this land for the cement plant,” says Prem Lal Thakur, a neighborhood resident.

The state authorities says it’s engaged on an answer to repair freight charges which are helpful to the folks.

However residents do not feel hopeful.

“First, we misplaced our lands. Then, the guarantees of employment weren’t saved. And once we tried incomes by means of transportation, the vegetation have been shut down over freight charges. Can it get any worse? says Ms Sharma.

It is a query different locals are asking.