2,024 acres of the 75,629 acres of defense land have been encroached upon by people: Center to SC

Delhi, On Wednesday, the Center informed the Supreme Court that 2,024 of the nation’s 75,629 acres of defense land are now encroached upon by private individuals, and 1,575 acres are in the unauthorized hands of those who leased the land for agricultural use.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati informed a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that a status report had been submitted and that steps were being taken to eliminate the encroachments.

After the Center stated that a new committee had been established to supervise the actions done to eradicate the encroachments, the court allowed two months for the submission of a new status report.

Nearly 819 acres of land are occupied by state and federal government agencies or their projects for a variety of public-utility uses, including building roads, schools, public parks, and bus stops, in addition to administrative purposes, according to the Ministry of Defense’s status report.

“Approximately 75,629 acres of defence land falls under the administrative purview of the Defence Estates Organisation, primarily Class A-2, B-3, B-4 and C land. About 52,899 acres of this area are located inside cantonments, while 22,730 acres are outside of them. According to the declaration, people have encroached on about 2,024 acres.

It said additionally, 1,575 acres of land is under the unauthorised possession of former agricultural lessees, “against whom eviction proceedings have been initiated by respective DEOs”.

The affidavit was filed in a public interest litigation plea filed in 2014 by NGO Common Cause, seeking a probe into alleged encroachment of defence land across the country.

According to the statement, attempts are underway to discuss the occupation of defense land with the relevant government authorities in order to investigate the possibility of land exchanges, whereby the defense ministry could be given comparable land parcels in place of those that are being occupied by state government organizations without authorization.

“The Directorate General Defence Estates has operationalized an Encroachment Module inside the aforementioned Real-Time Record Management system, which was created internally by the DGDE, to support efforts to remove encroachment. Defense Estates Officers and Cantonment Board CEOs can use this digital platform to publicly and directly submit encroachment cases to the appropriate Estate Officers,” the affidavit stated.

Highlighting the preventive measures, the ministry said the steps taken by the Defence Estates Organisation to protect defence land , include raising boundary walls and fencing vulnerable plots.

“Over the past ten years, the CEOs and DEOs of the Defense Estates Department have taken approximately 1,715 acres of defense land that is managed by the DE Organization. About 220 acres of encroachment from defense land have been cleared this year alone because to the technological advantages of the CoE survey and better local government support, the ministry stated.

It further stated that the Defence Estates Organisation frequently faces practical challenges while carrying out eviction procedures against unauthorized encroachments, including as judicial stays, a lack of police and magistrates, and other procedural and infrastructure problems. Enforcement is frequently delayed as a result of these difficulties.

The affidavit outlined a number of further actions taken by the Center to eliminate unauthorized occupations, encroachments, and the full digitization of data.

The highest court noted anomalies in the distribution of defense land to private companies on May 7 and considered forming an investigation team.

It said, without naming the cantonment sites, that some of them include luxurious bungalows with acres of open space and a massive retail center that were constructed with the help of defense estates officers.

The top court consented to hear a PIL in 2014 that asked the CBI to look into claims of defense land exploitation and encroachment nationwide.

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