Hyderabad: Slums have come up on land owned by the Army at several places in the state. Around 32 acres of defence land within and outside the Secunderabad Cantonment has been encroached upon.
Encroachment and mismanagement of defence land has come under the scanner of the Supreme Court, which has issued a notice to the Centre seeking its response on a PIL that wants a CBI probe into the alleged encroachments and misuse of defence land across the country.
A bench of the apex court has agreed to hear the petition which alleged that mismanagement of defence lands has led to various scams including Sukna, and Adarsh Society scams.
In Andhra Pradesh alone, defence-owned land amounts to 12,000 acres. The local military authority here had written to the state government to either give alternative land or remove the slums.
Andhra Sub Area Commander Major General A. Pithawala said that about 20 per cent of the encroached land has been won back by the Army in the courts of law. “The encroachment on defence land is not new. It has been there for years. We have been fighting it out in the courts. There are no scams involving lands owned by the defence in Andhra Pradesh as on date.”
He said the Army authorities have taken up a slew of measures to ensure that every inch of defence land is protected. A survey will earmark the boundaries of the defence land outside Cantonment limits, and another survey will demarcate defence-owned lands within the Cantonment.
“We are also constructing walls around land to protect it from encroachment. Already compound walls have been constructed around about 10 km of defence properties. Another important thing is that the defence authorities are taking up mutation of its properties wherever required,” Maj. Gen. Pithawala said.
He said the Army is short of 2,000 acres of land required to set up field firing range, grenade range, rifle range, and training and administrative establishments. A field firing range in Kambadur mandal of Anantapur district is under consideration.
