Journalism of Courage
Maharashtra has 2,488 acres of defence land under encroachments,which is the second highest after UP where its is 3080 acres,said Defence Minister AK Antony in a written reply to Darshana Jardosh and others in Lok Sabha on Monday.
According to the reply,12,364 acres of defence land (as on 3.9.2012) is under encroachment across the country. While there is no encroachment in states such as Mizoram,Tripura,Sikkim,Nagaland and a few Union Territories,in Karnataka and Goa it is 28 acres and 4 acres,respectively.
Action for removal of encroachment is taken under the provisions of Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act,1971 as well as Cantonments Act,2006. Detailed instructions emphasising the need for ensuring vigilance,detection and prevention of new encroachments have been issued by the ministry. Some cases of alleged illegal transfer,wrong mutation and irregular grant of no objection certificate for sale of defence land or land under the possession of defence authorities have come to light in recent years, said Antony in his reply.
Regarding the Lohegaon land case,he said,It was alleged that the then defence estate officer,some private individuals and other unknown persons hatched a conspiracy to cheat defence authorities by misrepresenting facts about the land in Survey No. 233 A at village Loehgaon. They falsely claimed that the land did not belong to defence,while it has been in the possession of the military since 1918. Based on this,the land was wrongly mutated in the name of private individuals. The case was handed over to CBI for investigation and they have filed a charge-sheet in the case. The revenue authorities have since corrected entries in the revenue records in favour of Ministry of Defence.
