New Delhi, Dec 8:  Government on Thursday admitted that serious irregularities have been detected in the issuance of No Objection Certificates, related to the use of defence land for private purposes including housing, by the Defence Estates Organizations in Srinagar and its adjoining areas.
 Virtually admitting a scam in giving clearance for use of defence land for private purposes in the sensitive areas of Srinagar district, Defence Minister A K Antony said that a CBI enquiry has already been ordered into the case for fixing responsibility.
 Responding to a query by cine-star turned politician Hema Malini and Prabhat Jha (both BJP) in Rajya Sabha, Antony said that prima facie irregularities were detected in the issuance of the NOCs after preliminary enquiries into the matter.
 It may be recalled the alleged defence land scam had come to light after reports of some defence organizations having issued NOCs to private builders for taking up construction on Defence land adjoining Srinagar Airport in the Humhama area.
Meanwhile, the Government has also admitted to large scale encroachment of Defence land all over the country. Nearly 15,000 acres of Defence land has already been unauthorizedly controlled by the vested interests, Antony said.
 Significantly, though smaller in size as compared to many other states, JK stands at number five in terms of encroachment of Defence land. According to data furnished by the Government in Parliament 729.349 acres of land has been encroached in the state. Another insurgency hit state Assam comes next with 616.569 acres of encroached defence land.
 Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 3079.9508 acres followed by Maharashtra where 2487.9482 acres of land has been unauthorized grabbed by people. Madhya Pradesh falls next in the list with 1491.796024 acres and Haryana 959.0387 acres of land.
 Alarmed by the large scale encroachment of Defence land, the Ministry had ordered computerization of land record sometime back. The process of land records pertaining to general land registers and military land registers has now been completed. The Government has also sanctioned a project for survey, demarcation and verification of Defence lands, Antony said.
 Also, a legislative mechanism is also being development to provide a legal framework to deal with such cases of encroachments. In this regard a Land Management Bill for management of Defence lands outside notified Cantonment areas is also being considered.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST