NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence (MoD), one of the biggest land holding organisations in the country, is planning to conduct an internal audit as it smells large-scale corruption after the Adarsh Housing scam in Mumbai was exposed.
The Ministry has accepted that more than 11,000 acres of Defence land all across the country have been encroached upon. Most of the land- 2284.441 acre- has been encroached upon in Maharashtra alone. In Mumbai, it is estimated Adarsh Housing society was not the only case of Defence land encroachment.
The Government has told Parliament that it is considering the proposal to conduct an audit of the Directorate of Defence Estate, the much maligned department which is at the centre of corruption scandal.
Most of the Defence land is located at the prime areas attracting attention of the real estate dealers. Among the southern states, Andhra Pradesh has the highest Defence land-212.646 acrewhich has been encroached upon. In Karnataka, 59.465 acre and in Kerala, 1.366 acre of Defence land are encroached upon.
It is estimated that the Defence Department holds 17.3 lakh acres of land across the country.
After Maharshtra, the largest encroachment of the Defence land has been reported from Uttar Pradesh where the department has lost 2948.826 acres. Among the three services, the Army holds the maximum land followed by the Air Force.
After the Adarsh Housing Society scam came to light, the Armed Forces have proposed that the MoD should acquire all the land belonging to the state governments in the Defence areas.
This is expected to prevent recurrence of Adarsh-like incidents where the Defence land in Mumbai’s prime locality Colaba was used to build a housing society.
The Directorate of Defence Estate now has a new boss in Ashok Hamal who has been asked by the MoD to clean up the mess in the department.
His appointment was seen as part of the plan to set land records straight.
