Army has occupied over 15,000 acres of land in Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir, the Legislative Council was informed on Wednesday. The total land under the occupation of Army is nearly 15,800 acres which includes both private and state land, chief minister Omar Abdullah said in a written reply to a question.
Cases of both the state and private land have already been taken up with Defence Estates Officer, Leh, he said.
via Hindustan Times.
Vimal Bhatia.
Rajasthan is likely to win its tussle over 483-acre prime land, also known as Girdhar Camp, with the Army as the Centre is set to take action against the force for non-payment of the requisite amount for the land. The land, barely one km away from Jaisalmer town, is in possession of the Army for the past 44 years.
According to the district administration, the Army is neither leaving the place nor making payment against the demand note of Rs 414 crore for land. District administration officials claimed that many reminders for the payment have been sent to the Army authorities but to no avail. During the Army liaison meeting held on September 16, the administration has also expressed its annoyance over the matter and despite the Army authorities agreeing to deposit the amount at the current rates, have not done so, sources said. The issue is also under scanner of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report.
District administration sources said after the 1965 Indo-Pak war, the land was given temporarily to the Army on its request for the purpose of transit camp to park Army vehicles. At present, several five- and three-star hotels have come up in front of the Girdhar Camp and with the formation of the urban improvement trust in Jaisalmer, land cost in the area has shot up sky-high.
The sources also said, as per the records, at the end of 1965 war, the land measuring 483 acre was allotted to Army in 1968 on the condition that it would deposit the money as fixed by the state government. At that time, the government had sent a demand letter of Rs 23.37 lakh, which the Army failed to deposit. Later, on January 14, 1977, the defence department had sent a letter to the state government saying it didn’t require the land. After getting approval from the state government, the district administration cancelled the allotment on September 20, 1989. After some time, the defence department demanded re-allotment of the land, following which the state government directed that a transit camp be set up at the cantonment land allotted to the Army and told the force to immediately vacate Girdhar Camp. Protesting this decision, the Army filed two different petitions in the court. The court’s decision was also in favour of the government, yet going against the said orders, the Army filed a case under the single-bench civil revision petition section 115, the sources said.
Following the Army petition, the Jodhpur divisional commissioner was directed to resolve the issue. The divisional commissioner on October 27, 1999, sent a proposal and recommended re-allotment of the land to the Army under certain conditions.
At the liaison meeting, the Army authorities were informed that if they pay for the land as per the district-level committee rates, the state government would consider allotting the land to them.
District collector Shuchi Tyagi said Centre would be taking action against the Army for the non-payment.
Meanwhile, defence spokesperson Col S D Goswami said, “The Girdhar Camp land belongs to the former ruler of Jaisalmer, HH Maharawal Girdhar Singh, and was gifted to Ganga Risala of the Bikaner State Forces upon the merger of state forces with the Indian Army. Ganga Risala was re-designated as 13 Grenadiers Regiment. No formal written proof exists in revenue records of the gift as the rulers followed only traditional laws.
–via The Times of India.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Thursday criticised the Army for letting a private builder usurp its land in Kandivli, Mumbai and pointed to the role of personal secretary of the then Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh. The secretary had asked the Army to take “appropriate action” when the builder was prevented from construction activity by the Army sentries.
Highlighting these facts in its report tabled in Parliament, the CAG said, “hired land measuring 5,166 square metres in the possession of Central Ordnance Depot(COD) at Kandivli, Mumbai, which was in possession of the Army since 1942 was relinquished to a private company for residential purposes based on an irregular No Objection Certificate(NOC) issued by Defence Estate Office(DEO) Mumbai.”
The CAG then noted “though certain fraudulent activities regarding the land had come to their notice, the COD Mumbai did not get the land demarcated in its favour by the State Government and this facilitated the usurpation of the land from the Army.”
The piece of land in question was allotted to a private company in 2007 and when it started development work there, the COD objected to it and placed sentries there. “As the COD obstructed the development work there, the company lodged a complaint with the Minister of State for Defence Production (Rao Inderjit Singh) whereby his Personal Secretary wrote to the then Army chief’s Secretariat for appropriate action,” it said.
The file was then forwarded by the Army chief to the Quarter Master General (QMG) (a Lt Gen-rank officer) who later informed the Minister’s office that the “Local Military Authority had been instructed to remove all obstructions and to let the legal owner go ahead with planned development.”
The CAG said, “The land which was in possession of the Army since decades and under active use for patrolling purposes and of the value of Rs5.94 crore was relinquished without any serious effort or contest.”
Moreover, “the Army headquarters instead of investigating and defending its case allowed the company to go ahead with its development work in the vicinity of military establishment thus compromising defence security,” it said.
The case was under CBI investigation and the CAG said the probe should find out as to “how the NOC was issued when the COD had already objected to construction of any multi-story building in the vicinity.”
-via The Pioneer
TNN.
The management of Tyagi High School in Khadki cantonment has claimed that Army authorities have forcibly fenced the school’s playground and taken over the land without following legal procedure. Army authorities, however, have said that the playground is defence land and they have followed the legal process to take possession of the land.
The school is located on a three-acre plot on Burr Road in Khadki cantonment limits. The school building is on one acre, while the remaining two acres forms the playground.
Satish Tyagi, secretary of the Tyagi Education Society and Trust that runs the school, said he had rented a bungalow in 1980 and late purchased it in 1984. The school was set up in this bungalow in 1996.
As many as 1,196 students study in the school, which has pre-primary, primary and secondary sections. There are two divisions each from Std I to X. “We have permission from the cantonment board to operate the school,” he said.
Tyagi said the defence authorities had staked their claim on the two-acre playground under the Urban Land Ceiling Act in 1993 and tried to take possession of the land in 2003. “In 2004, we approached the civil court, which said that the land will be used as a playground and the defence authorities have no relation to the land. The defence authorities challenged the decision in the district court in 2006. The matter is now sub judice. Despite this, in October 2011, the defence authorities served us a notice under section 4a of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants Act), 1971, which is for unauthorised occupation for long periods. But they took possession of the playground land under section 3a of the act, which is for eviction of unauthorised occupation for less than 30 days.”
He said that as the playground has been fenced, students will not be able to hold sports events or other programmes.
-via The Times of India.
Villagers of Kibitho and Wallong circle of Anjaw district in Arunachal Pradesh have sought the intervention of defence secretary for freeing their agricultural land from “illegal” occupation of the Sikh Regiment under 82 Mountain Division at Lohitpur.
In its representation to secretary (Defence), the Meyor Welfare Association, on behalf of the villagers, said the Sikh Regiment, deployed at Lohitpur, had illegally occupied agricultural land of both the villages for construction of bunkers at Barakhundun without maintaining the due process of Land Acquisition Act.
The Army had neither taken any permission from the district administration nor the owners of the land before acquiring the land, read the representation. An injunction was also passed by the district administration prohibiting the army from constructing bunker at Barakhundun, following a complaint lodged by the villagers. But the army did not comply with it, the document said.
The association had also submitted a representation to the commandant of the regiment, registering its strong protest against illegal occupation of land and defying administration injunction.
“By doing so, the army has not only violated human rights but also snatched villagers’ livelihood,” the representation said and appealed to the defence secretary to pass necessary directives to the Sikh Regiment to stop “arbitrary” construction on agricultural land without following the legal formalities.
-via The Times of India.
Sanjay Yadav.
A woman engineer has accused a BSF man of assault and land grab. While the police said that the two were living together for the past three years, the complainant said that he had promised to marry her.
On the order of a city court, Rajendra Park police have filed an FIR against the accused. According to city police, the 30-year-old engineer who works with a private firm at IMT Manesar had filed a petition in a city court accusing Ashok Pehalwan, resident of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, of assault after promising to marry her.
He also allegedly grabbed her plot and registered it in his name fraudulently. Subsequently, the court ordered Rajendra Park police to lodge an FIR in the case. “Both of them were married previously. They were living alone before they came to know each other. The complainant was married to a villager of Karnal district in 2001, but she had filed for divorce after some time. Then she was living alone in Laxmi Garden colony,” said investigator Kundan Lal.
“Similarly, Pehalwan was not living with his wife. At present, the disputed plot is in the name of the accused, but the complainant has claimed that it belongs to her. We are investigated the case further,” Lal said.
-via The Times of India.
Vinod Kumar Menon.
Saying that life has not been kind to Jagannath Kaup would be an affront to his adversity. The 66-year-old has been through hell and back. And the ruinous journey has forced him to live with a comatose son, the memories of a second, dead one, reversal of fortune in business, loss of house and property, and compensation promised by the government that is yet to materialise.
For all intents and purposes, it was an overdose of anaesthesia during a minor surgery on his eight-year-old son that crushed any semblance of the usual for the Kalina-based Kaup family. The son, Suraj, will turn 40 on September 1, and has been in a semi-comatose state for the last 31 years.
The Kaups have since stretched every resource, economic and emotional, as they nurse Suraj all through these long years.
To compound their tragedy, they lost their second son as well. Prithviraj was in the third year of his engineering in 1997, when an accident at Aksa beach claimed his life.
To top it, the piece of land allotted to the family as a gesture of clemency by the state was taken over for constructing houses for government servants. The plot promised to him in its place has also been taken over, this one by defence forces.
The about turn
But Kaup has seen better times. Until the early 80s, he ran a flourishing automobile repair workshop near Colaba. His clientele included bureaucrats, politicians, senior doctors and businessmen. An incident on February 13, 1980, capsized all of that. Calamity clung to them.
His son, Suraj, then in Std III at Garodia English High School in Ghatkopar East, was at home in the same suburb preparing for a test. While using a compass, he accidentally hit his left eye with it.
His mother, Sugandhi (now 60), heard his cry and rushed to him. Unable to see any bruises or blood, she took him to the family doctor who spotted a small blood clot in the eye and advised a minor surgery.
On February 15, Suraj was to undergo the surgery at a nursing home in Ghatkopar (East).
It was a minor procedure, which doctors said would not take more than 15 minutes. Suraj was wheeled in to the operation theatre at 7 am.
Two hours elapsed but the doctors did not emerge from the OT. When they did, they were in a state of panic. Recalls Kaup, “The doctors rushed out of the OT, panicked, saying that Suraj had developed some neurological problem. They summoned a neurosurgeon. It was a case of anaesthesia overdose.”
Suraj stayed on at the nursing home with no sign of improvement. He’d come to, scream ‘daddy, daddy’ and slip right back into unconsciousness.
He was shifted to JJ hospital, and later to Breach Candy, where he was kept in a special room for a few months. But doctors there could not revive him either. The anaesthesia had left him blind in both eyes; he was losing his speech and slipping in a vegetative state.
By now, Kaup had sold all his property, including his garage, to foot his son’s medical bills that ran into lakhs. “My friends and some bureaucrats provided financial assistance thereafter,” he said.
Kaup next met the then chief minister, AR Antulay. Touched by his plight, the CM instituted an inquiry into the medical negligence, and asked the medical health secreatary to treat Suraj at the state-run St George hospital.
The plot that was offered as a replacement is now barricaded by the Indian Air Force
He also allotted Kaup a flat in Kalina under the CM’s quota, and a piece of open plot in Bandra East so he could start a garage. Kaup took possession of the flat, but, for years, couldn’t do that for the plot.
Finally, in 2004, he approached the suburban collector who informed him that the plot had been used for constructing quarters for government servants.
He offered him another plot near Teachers’ Colony in Bandra (East). A letter from the collector’s office dated August 24, 2004 (copy with MiD DAY) does mention the Bandra plot.
However, a few years ago, Kaup learnt that the Air Force had taken over this plot, and erected a boundary wall around it.
Bleak present
For the past few months, Kaup has been running to the collector’s office regularly, in the hope of getting a new plot. The family, impoverished and dispirited, is just about hanging on.
“I have no regular source of income. But even as we starve, we want to ensure that Suraj never faces any problems regarding his medicines and essentials. We are praying for a miracle,” said Kaup, his eyes misting over.
Suraj lies in the small bedroom in Kaup’s Kalina flat. His immunity is very low and his mother does not allow anyone to enter his room. Even Kaup is expected to take a bath before entering.
“Sugandhi has stood beside him for all these years. She has done everything for him,” Kaup said.
Even today, Suraj gets convulsions and cries out in pain. Blind and growing heavier by the day because of his inert state, the couple is trapped just the way their son is in his body.
“We are alive only for Suraj. We have lost everything. We cannot even afford to fall sick; who would take care of him then? We have stopped showing our emotions to the world.
We have gone through hell, but have always kept a plastic smile firmly in place and will continue doing that,” said Kaup.
A poignant Sugandhi is even keen to know the procedure for mercy killing. “After my demise, nobody would be around to take care of my son. My last wish is mercy killing for my son,” the mother said.
The Other Side
Asked about the Air Force taking over the plot allotted to Kaup, Defence spokesperson Captain Manohar Nambiar said, “It is an old matter, and until we refer the records, it would be difficult to make an outright statement at this point. I will have to verify the claims with the Air Force and then make a comment.”
-via Mid Day News
The Indian Auditor General (CAG) has found the Indian Army occupying excess land of 2071.81 acres and 2461.11 acres respectively in Jammu and Rajouri than it was allotted by the authorities. As per Defence Estate Officers (DEO) records, the Army had been allotted 3409.78 acres and 2472 acres of land in Jammu and Rajouri respectively. After verifying records locally, the CAG found Army occupying 5481.59 acres and 4933.96 acres at these two places. For Srinagar, the Army is yet to finalise data records as demanded by the CAG. In Poonch and Rajouri, they were found having occupied less land of 2511.28 acres and 1985.53 acres than what the records suggested.
The findings come in a CAG report on ‘Performance Audit of Defence Estates Management’ for the financial year ending March 2010. The report also pointed out that of defence lands were being encroached by high and mighty of country.
For instance, the CAG pointed out, Agra Club with 17.68 acres is paying a ridiculously low Rs 58.92 a year as rent to the defence ministry since 1992.
In Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, a bungalow with a 20.18 acre spread was given to a club supposedly for the welfare of the armed forces. The club in turn built 33 rooms, a restaurant and a petrol pump, and has been charging Rs 2,400 to Rs 3,000 a day per suite.
The CAG noted that in four stations in the Central and Southern Commands—Agra, Lucknow, Pune and Secunderabad—122.58 acres has been leased out to various clubs at abysmally nominal rates.
Land is being utilised for unauthorised commercial purposes like marriages, parties and exhibitions. Further, the four clubs owed Rs 2.14 crore for the years 2004 to 2010 on account of penalty for unauthorised structures.
Also, at least 16 golf courses operated by the Army Zone Golf, the apex body of army golf courses in India, offer membership to different categories of civilians on payment of monthly subscriptions. Other charges are also leaved per session.
The revenue so generated is not credited to the government account.
Lashing out at the government for not setting rules to govern and run golf courses, the CAG calculates that there are 97 golf courses under the army, spread over 8,076.94 acres.
In Lucknow, 19.57 acres of defence land was on lease to MB Club since 1931 to provide recreational facilities to army personnel. But, the CAG observed, the club was misusing the land for unauthorised purposes. This club owes Rs 34.21 lakh for using the land for commercial purposes.
Similarly, a race track over 65.15 acres in Pune Cantonment has been leased to the Royal Western India Turf Club since 1907. But, over the years, the club has occupied an additional 24.10 acres of defence land and has made additions and altercations to properties leased out without sanction.
In 1961, the defence ministry had sanctioned the construction of Hotel Clarks Shiraz in Agra Cantonment on 5.68 acres of defence land on payment of Rs 2,840 a year as rent. The hotel was also to pay a premium of Rs 56,800 for 30 years.
After the first lease term of 30 years expired in 1991, the rent was revised to Rs 11,931 a year for the hotel with 237 rooms. The CAG noted that the rent should have been fixed four times the residential rent as per government policy.
“Non-revision of rent in accordance with the government policy has resulted in the loss of Rs. 8.08 crore from 2001 to 2009,” the CAG said.
In an identical case, the Grand Hotel over 1.4 acres at Agra has been paying an annual rent of Rs 1,260.90 and a premium of Rs. 25,218. The rent was revised in 1993 and set at Rs 1891.35 a year against Rs 14.12 lakh at market value.
Noting that there have been repeated instances of misuse of defence land, buildings and manpower for running NGO activities in violation of government instructions, the CAG mentions that the Station Commander for Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh provided defence land valued at Rs 2.69 crore to a society to establish an education centre for a B.Ed course.
The commander also reappropriated six defence buildings for use by the society and got them repaired at Rs 29.90 lakh spent out of government funds.
In another case, the Station Commander at Jalandhar allowed the opening of an Army College of Nursing on defence land and buildings, and spent Rs 19.23 lakh from government funds for the repair of buildings.
In yet another case, the CAG noted that the Army Service Corps deployed 9 to 15 army personnel for running a hotel for wards of army personnel studying in a private engineering college at Aurangabad.
The expenditure on the personnel deployed for non-bonafide duties was Rs 1.01 crore between 2003 and 2008.
All this comes on the heels of an army court of inquiry indicting top retired military officials including former chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and Gen NC Vij in the Mumbai Adarsh society case.
-via SANA
Two former army chiefs used their official position to seek exemption from Maharashtra’s existing laws that barred them from getting flats in a Colaba high-rise, letters written by them reveal.
General Deepak Kapoor and General N.C. Vij had been allotted flats in Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, allegedly built on navy land allocated for Kargil war widows.
However, the allotments were virtually useless because the two generals had not lived in the state for 15 years.
According to a government notification dated May 25, 2007, the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, bars people not domiciled in the state from membership of co-operative housing societies here.
The generals then wrote near-identical letters, which are in possession of The Telegraph, to then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh requesting exemption as senior army officers. Vij’s letter is dated June 18, 2008, while Kapoor’s is dated June 19, 2008.
“I am writing to you in my personal capacity as an applicant for membership of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society…. Though the society was kind enough to accept my request for membership… it was pointed out that… a member is required to be living in Maharashtra at the time of approval,” General Kapoor wrote on his official letterhead (letter no. 17622/DK/DO). He argued that as an army officer he was unable to spend those many years in Mumbai.
“May I therefore request… exemption from the applicability of the notification,” wrote General Vij, on his official letterhead as head of the National Disaster Management Authority (letter no. 13710/NCV/DO).
On November 5, 2008, an under-secretary of the revenue department, V.B. Latke, wrote to Mumbai city collector Idzes Kundan that applications forwarded by the chief minister’s office could not be entertained as the officers had not resided in the state for 15 years.
The two generals again approached the chief minister’s office on December 17, 2008.
Four months later, the principal secretary, revenue and forest department, directed Kundan to treat their pleas as special cases. Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, ex-legislator and Adarsh Society member, confirmed this. “There is nothing wrong with it. Bombay High Court had subsequently struck down (this) requirement for military personnel,” he said.
Ironically, the state government has challenged this ruling. The matter is still pending.
-via The Telegraph
Names of several top Indian Armed Forces officers, including two former army chiefs, have cropped up in an alleged case of property grab in Mumbai. Some top politicians and senior bureaucrats also occupy the disputed property located in the city’s Colaba area.
What makes the case even more sensitive is the fact that the complaint has been made by Western Naval Command flag officer commanding-in-chief Vice Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin. The property that has come under question is a 31-storey building Adarsh Housing Society.
Among those allotted flats are two former army chiefs. Several other generals, admirals, political leaders and senior bureaucrats have been allotted flats.
Vice Admiral Bhasin, in his letter to the navy chief, stated that the housing society is refusing to part with the list of its members. The Maharashtra government also has no details about it.
A Headlines Today investigation found that it was a big conspiracy to appropriate flats in the name of war widows and military veterans. In the process, the army even lied to the ministry of defence which then misled Parliament when a starred question on ownership of land came up in 2003. Almost all the army officers involved in misleading Parliament now owns a house in the society.
The Mumbai-based Western Naval Command has also raised serious security concerns over the high-rise. The 100 metre building is adjacent to a planned helipad and other military installations violating the coastal regulation zone limit of a maximum height of 30 metre.
However, after the issue came to light, the defence ministry is taking it seriously. It is now carefully examining the reports of alleged violation of rules by the senior defence officers.
Content of the letter
* Incomplete and fictitious details of members is held with the deputy registrar’s office. Information sought on flat allottees was being deliberately denied or inordinately delayed with malafied intent.
* Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society Ltd has acquired the plot of land under highly suspicious circumstances.
* The society has stated it has negotiated with local military authorities who expressed their willingness to allow the society to go ahead with the project if a certain amount of accommodation is also provided for army welfare.
Society details
The total plot area where Adarsh Housing Society has been constructed is 40,000 square metre. The building has 104 flats of two sizes, 600 square feet and 1,000 sq ft.
The capital value of each 600 sq ft apartment is estimated at around Rs 2.4 crore, while the capital value of 1,000 sq ft flat is Rs 4 crore.
There are nine promoters of the society led by Congress leader Kanaihaya Lal Gidwani.
-via India Today
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