Vacate encroachments or give infra of equal value, Army tells Haryana

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, April 22

The Army has sought the resolution of the issue of the encroachment on lands owned by it in Haryana or equal value of infrastructure in lieu of these in cases where it is not viable to remove the existing structures.

A high-level meeting was held today between Western Command Headquarters and the Haryana Government to resolve the long outstanding issues pertaining to the unauthorised use of the defence land by various departments of the state government as well as private parties.

“Issues regarding the ownership of the land and its unauthorised use and exchange of defence land in Haryana were discussed at the meeting,” a spokesperson for the Western Command said.

“A number of high-level decisions were taken to expedite the resolution of the outstanding issues in a time-bound manner and suitable instructions were passed to the departments concerned on both sides. These included the joint demarcation of land, ratifying documents and resolving disparities in land records held by the state and the Army,” he added.

Various camping grounds and a large number of pockets adjoining military installations are among the assets that have been encroached upon, with structures and buildings coming up over the past many years.

In accordance with the government rules, the Army can ask the civil administration to get the encroached land vacated or seek equal value of infrastructure from the state government at a suitable place.

Top violators

According to figures tabled in Parliament this year, 504.5661 acres of defence land in Haryana are under encroachment. Haryana figures among the top five states in terms of the area of defence land under encroachment. The other states are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.