DEFENCE MINISTER CALLS
FOR A DETAILED STUDY OF THE ENCROACHED DEFENCE LAND
The Defence Minister Shri George
Fernandes has stressed the need to carry out a detailed study
of the nine thousand acre of Defence estate land under encroachment.
The Defence Estate Department has over 17 lakh acre of land spread
over in 62 cantonments and other places. Speaking at the foundation
laying ceremony of the new complex of Directorate General of Defence
Estates (DGDE) in Delhi Cantonment, Shri Fernandes said that Defence
land should be used for the purpose for which it was acquired.
He said that there is a need to dispose of surplus land if any,
as this was otherwise a frozen asset of the Govt. which needed
to be properly utilized. The Defence Minister said that if the
study of appropriate usage of land revealed that the services
needed more land then that could also be considered. He said that
the detailed study of the encroached land should be carried out
expeditiously.
Shri Fernandes also
expressed the hope that the proposed Cantonment Act would be passed
in the Winter Session of the Parliament, as it had been already
been much delayed. The new act will replace the Cantonment Board
Act of 1924.
The new office complex
of DGDE will be spread in an area of five acre and will have training
institute, transit accommodation and residential accommodation
besides the main office complex. The project is likely to be over
in eighteen months and will cost approximately Rs ten crore.
Minister of State
for Defence Shri Chaman Lal Gupta, Secretary General Rajya Sabha
Shri Yogendra Narain and Director General Defence Estate Mrs Beena
Maitre also present on the occasion.
