Rajasthan: Lord Krishna devotees oppose mining in Bharatpur hills | Jaipur News

A delegation under the Braj Parvat Evum Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti (BPEPS) met Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on September 11

JAIPUR: Devotees of Lord Krishna from 70-80 villages are protesting against alleged illegal mining that is eating away the twin hills, Kankachal and Aadibadri, related to the deity for the last 242 days at Pasopa village in Bharatpur’s Deeg Tehsil.
A delegation under the Braj Parvat Evum Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti (BPEPS) met Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on September 11 to exert pressure on CM Ashok Gehlot to cancel the mining lease. The movement is getting international attention among Krishna’s devotees in the US and Canada. Ancient scriptures say that Lord Krishna spent time performing trance in these two hills.
The mining lease was granted on 736 hectares 15 years ago in Deeg tehsil, which comes under Braj land. Initially, the mining was done in a limited area, while the twin hills that hold religious significance was very far away from the leased area.
The area is used for mining of masonry stones used in building materials. “The locals realized in 2009 that the lease has been extended and the twin hills have come under the leased area. Since then, we have been lobbying with the consecutive governments, but nothing has happened,” said Pradeep Mathur of BPEPS.
The issue was highlighted in 2019 when the miner allegedly started extracting 2000 trucks of masonry stones every day. The speed of mining shocked the locals who held a meeting with priests to save the Braj land. “The hills are now under the danger of being razing to the ground. It’s now or never like situation for us. Exercising our democratic rights we have started Dharna,” said Mathur.
Interestingly, 5,232 hectares around the 736 hectares is a notified area under the forest department. The body accused the state mines department of deliberately skipping the 736 hectares, which is delivering good masonry stones for mining by ignoring the religious importance of the area.
The entire area falls in three tehsils of Bharatpur—Deeg, Kaman and Nagar. The protestors have received support from Kaman MLA Wajib Ali, who sat with them at the protest site on several occasions. Radhapriya Barsana, a member of the BPEPS, said Priyanka Gandhi assured them of taking the matter with her party’s government.
“Our body has received a call from the chief minister’s office collecting information regarding the same,” said Barsana, who claimed that the devotees of Lord Krishna are peace-loving souls protesting without causing any inconvenience to anyone.
Wajib Ali, who has been supporting the cause, has written to Gehlot to look into the matter and to give a proper hearing to the devotees. “The issue needs urgent attention since locals, devotees and priests have been holding protest for quite long. I will try to raise the issue in the ongoing Vidhan Sabha,” said Ali. TOI called up additional chief secretary of mines department, Subodh Agrawal and a special secretary to CM Arti Dogra, who has been handling the issue but got no response.