'Centre has written to states to stop illegal sand mining'

Alleged incidents of illegal sand mining have been reported in recent times

The Centre has written to all state governments in the country to take steps to stop illegal sand mining activity in their respective states, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said today.

"We have written to all state governments to stop illegal mining activity in their states. They have the force to stop such activities in their states," she told reporters here, responding to queries on illegal sand mining in the country.

Alleged incidents of illegal sand mining have been reported in the media in recent times and incidents related to illegal mining such as transfer of officials, who take on the mining mafia, have also been reported.

In Tamil Nadu, the state government has set up a team of officials to go into the alleged illegal sand mining activity in Tuticorin district, where the transfer of an IAS officer was suspected by some to be connected to his cracking down on the activity.

However, the officer denied any such motive of the government and said his service was required in another department.