36 trailer vehicles involved in illegal sand mining seized in Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Police on Monday seized vehicles involved in illegal sand mining from Rajasthan's Banas River.

In total, 36 trailers have been seized by the Bayana Circle Police while earlier in the day, 11 more trailers had been seized during search.

Earlier on February 24, the Supreme Court extended the sand mining ban in the state till March 13 and issued notice to the state government and the Union ministry of forest and environment (MoEF) for its move to mine sand from agricultural land.

A bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the Centre whether it had a policy to curb this practice.

The court said if illegal sand mining was not stopped, it might lead to the drying up of rivers. The top court's observation came during the hearing on a batch of matters related to sand mining in Rajasthan.

Last year, the apex court had restrained 82 large lease holders from mining sand in the state on November 16.