Indian Army battles encroachments of its lands in cities

Army, corporator fight over 'encroached' land by Hemanth CS, DNA, Updated: December 09, 2010 15:40 IST

Bangalore: The Indian Army not only has to deal with incursions on the borders but also with alleged encroachment of its lands within cities where their bases are located.

The Parachute Regiment Training Centre (PRTC) in Bangalore is one such. A local corporator has allegedly not just encroached upon its land in two separate locations adjoining HD Deve Gowda Road in RT Nagar, but also built a commercial complex and a petrol bunk there.

Documents with the PRTC officials show that a total of 27.87 guntas of land has been allegedly encroached upon by JC Nagar corporator N Govindaraju (of ward no 46).

Govindaraju claims the land is his ancestral property and insists that he is in possession of the PRTC land which had been handed over to the Central government by the Mysore State after it merged with the Indian Union in the 1950s.

"The Mysore State Force handed over 613 acres and 33 guntas of land to the government of India after the state's merger. This land which was used by the Mysore Lancers and the Mysore Infantry and given to Ministry of Defence in 1955. But over the years small portions of our lands have been encroached upon," a senior official of the PRTC told DNA.

The encroached land on which the petrol pump and commercial complex have come up fall under survey no 42 of Matadahalli and survey no 1 of Saverline villages.
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Army, corporator fight over 'encroached' land

How the Army Lands are ursurped and encroached?
Local civil cantonment/ municipal elected councillors are the real culprits who allow criminals to surreptitiously and silently encroach Military Lands over a period of time in collusion with the Defence Estate officers who get a kick back on regular basis. The Military is often made a scapegoat as it has no wherewithal to fight the Political criminals and prefer to turn a blind eye to encroachments!