Vimal Bhatia.
The Rajasthan government and the district administration are struggling to get precious 483 acres of land worth crores of rupees, situated just 1-km away from the Jaisalmer town, from the possession of the Army.
The Army is allegedly neither leaving the prime land, locally famous as the Girdhar Camp, nor paying the nearly Rs 280 crore demanded for it by the district administration.
District collector MP Swami said that as per the state government’s directions a letter has been sent to the Army to deposit the price money of this land. “But the Army has not deposited the amount,” Swami said.
Defence spokesperson Colonel SD Goswami said land issues pertaining to the defence were discussed in the Civil Military Liaison Conference.
Four years after the Indo-Pak war of 1965, the district administration gave this land to the Army for a transit camp to park Army vehicles on a temporary basis. Over the years, five-star and three-hotels came up opposite the transit camp and the land prices in its vicinity skyrocketed.
The land ownership was now disputed. As per district administration, the land was allotted in 1968 with the condition that the defence department would have to deposit its price as fixed by the state government. The government had then sent a demand letter for Rs 23.37 lakh for the land. The Army, however, failed to deposit the amount.
In fact, on January 14, 1977, the Defence department sent a letter to the state governmentsaying that it did not require the land and its allotment to the Army should be cancelled. Accordingly, on the approval of the state government, the district administration cancelled the land allotment on September 9, 1989.
After some years the defence department, however, again demanded the land. The state government, on the other hand, said that the transit camp be set up within the cantonment land. The state government even asked the Army to immediately leave the land’s possession.
- via The Times of India
