828 acres of defence land encroached by state or central govt departments till 2020-end: MoD

The area of land under unauthorised occupation of ex-agricultural lessees is approximately three per cent of the total defence land under management of DE organisation, it noted.

A total of 828 acres of defence land has been encroached by state or central government departments or their entities till 2020-end, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence. ''It is submitted that about 70,000 acres of defence land is under management of DE (Defence Estates) organisation. Of this, as on December 31, 2020, about 4,493 acres of defence land under the management of DE Organisation is under encroachment,'' the MoD said, according to the committee's report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Out of the aforementioned 4,493 acres, approximately 828 acres of defence land has been encroached upon by the state and central government departments or their entities, it added. ''Lessees of ex-agriculture leases have encroached about 2,051 acres of land and about 1,614 acres is encroached by private persons,'' the MoD mentioned. The area of land under unauthorised occupation of ex-agricultural lessees is approximately three per cent of the total defence land under management of DE organisation, it noted. Out of 2,051 acres of unauthorised occupation of ex-agricultural leases, 28 acres has been freed from encroachment in the recent past, after completion of due process of law, it said. The MoD has taken various steps to stop the encroachment of its lands.

''These steps include proactive measures by leveraging technologies related to survey and demarcation of defence land and computerisation and digitisation of defence land records,'' it said. All efforts are being made for implementation of legal provisions also as a result of which 96 acres of defence land has been freed from encroachment between 2018 and 2020, it noted.

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