Defence must acquire all hills around NDA, says citizens’ panel

The committee felt that the entire plateau between Chandani Chowk and the academy also be acquired for defence purposes, since the present provision of the Regional Plan making it mandatory for plot owners to seek a no-objection certificate from the Academy for development within 40 metres from the central line of the Pashan road from Chandani Chowk to the academy gate would not be effective in the long run and the rule will be observed more in breaches.

Similarly, asking for “rigorous enforcement” of existing rules on the land use zoning or permissible users in different zones – particularly no development, hill top hill slope and agriculture – will also lead to nothing as the enforcement of these rules had traditionally been lax.

Acquisition of the land by the Defence department is the only option, the newly formed committee felt unanimously, to preserve the sanctity and dignity of this `cradle of leadership’ which is among the unique in the world in quality of training and facilities available on the campus.

The needs of defence in future will be ever expanding. Training requirement will also increase in proportion and character. Threat to security, with its changing manifestations, will pose another problem. Taking a holistic stand, therefore, it is imperative to resist urbanisation that is tightening its noose round the Academy which Indian and especially every Puneite is proud of.

Until the time the land is acquired by the defence department, the committee said, all development including the current proposal to convert hill tops, hill slopes, agricultural land around into fully developable zones be frozen.

The committee observed that the threat of urbanisation around NDA over the years with its adverse effect on training and security has been multi-pronged.

There has been unplanned growth right upto the NDA Kondhave (Uttamnagar) gate over the years. In recent years, rapid growth in villages Kopre, Kondhwe Dhavde and Kudje village to the west of the NDA having the only access from the Peacock Bay.

Then there has been sprouting of `farm houses’ and restaurants on the road to Pashan Gate from Chandani Chowk.

Farm houses have begun coming up on ridge at the back of the NDA campus overlooking the campus.

As the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back, now a sprawling area of both sides of the road from Chandani Chowk-NDA gate is proposed to be thrown open for fully developable residential zone by the State Government.

The question of resettlement of the 700 persons still clinging on to their old dwellings within the Academy in the erstwhile Ahire settlement was also discussed. The civil administration would be asked to settle them at a suitable site near their farms beyond the northern perimeter of the Academy.

The road along the left bank of Khadakwasla lake that goes from Uttamnagar end to the villages of Kopre, Kondhwe Dhavde and Kudje pass through patches of the NDA boundary till it finally enters the campus near Peacock Bay and then goes out. The NDA administration had been proposing reallocation of land between the NDA and the irrigation department so that the entire land lying north of the road will come under the Academy and that on the south (towards the lake) will come under irrigation department. This will facilitate the NDA to demarcate the road as the southern boundary of the Academy.