JAIPUR | April 11, 2017: The Border Security Force (BSF) has raised the red flag over illegal mining in border areas of Bikaner and pointed out that such activities pose a threat to national security.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, minister of state for mines (independent charge) Piyush Goyal admitted that the BSF had asked the Rajasthan government to take effective action against the menace.

The security force had also specifically requested the collector to implement security measures for miners and labourers working in mines located close to the international border.

"The BSF has raised the issue with state authorities to prevent illegal mining activities in the border area of Bikaner," said Goyal.

He further added that the force had highlighted the implicit dangers of trans-border smuggling, infiltration and anti-national activities due to such activities.

The issues raised by the security force are alarming as the state government has sanctioned four mining leases for gypsum within 1 to 5km and two more within 5 to 10km of the international border.

The minister said that the district administration had taken some steps to curb illegal mining. "The collector of Bikaner, vide letter dated April 20, 2016, had issued directions to all miners to submit their ID proof to the concerned police station," the minister said.

The district police, however, claimed that they provided intelligence inputs to BSF instead of the other way around. "We had carried out special campaigns even before the BSF raised this issue. We shared our intelligence report with them and it was because of our efforts that illegal mining has been completely stopped," said SP Amandeep Singh Kapoor, Bikaner.

Kapoor argued that the issue was old and that no illegal mining was taking place near the international border.

The mining department, meanwhile, remained clueless about the developments. When an official from the department was contacted, all he said was that they would look into the matter.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)