Army commander is the ultimate custodian of all military lands in his command

My Dear Chander,
I have been reading Gen Suman's articles with great interest and find myself in agreement with his views. However it is not so in the case of Sukhna and Adarsh scams. Refer: Scams & the Army: Silence is not golden by Major General Mrinal Suman, AVSM, VSM, PhD- click here

May be his information is different than what I have come to know. His piece needs to be read along with my article, 'Malfeasance in the Military' which appeared in the Tribune. I have always maintained that commanders, from unit upwards must, like the Caeser's wife, be above suspecion.

Sukhna Case
The proposer of this school (girls school!) had earlier asked for an NOC to build a Resort. Army had declined to issue an NOC. On arrival of a new corps commander he changed tack and now wanted an NOC to build a school. (He is no educationist!) Now there is a law that no construction can be allowed within 1000 yards of the perimeter of a cantonment. This law is in the interest of the army. Surely the army cannot be a party to compromise the very law meant to safeguard its interests. It does not matter, for what purpose the building is.

We learn that the brochure of the so called school had the picture of the then MS showing him as the future director of the school. Further he had shown the school as an affiliate of Myo College at Ajmer. Which was totally false. This itself should give us an idea as to the type of person this Aggarwal is. This officer (MS) during his second tenure at IMTRAT in Bhutan (now as the commandant) rebuild the officers mess and this very Aggarwal was the contractor, who did the work. He (MS) was also the Colonel of Kumaon Regt (at Ranikhet) where two projects were under construction. One of War Memorial (Rs 1.5 crore) and the other to rebuild the museum. Kumaon Regt already had a first rate museum. One of the contractor was Aggarwal, not the same Aggarwal, but could be a relative or just a co-incidence! Do we see anything wrong in what happened at Sukhna!

Adarsh Case
The plot of land called, 'Khukhri Park' was handed over to the army in EXCHANGE for another piece of land taken from the army by the civil administration, some decades earlier. So this land was in possession of the army and belonged to it and there could be no two opinions on this point. While the DDE maintains the records of military lands and administers some part of these (perhaps other than Class A land) but the ownership remains with the military. Station, sub-area and area commanders are responsible to ensure that there is no encrouchment etc of this land. Army commander is the ultimate custodian of all military lands in his command. It would be wrong to assume that DDE could sell, barter or gift away or return this piece of land back to the civil or for that matter any piece of cantonment land (not even camping grounds which are 'stand alone' pieces of land far away from cantoments!) If that was not so, much of Delhi Cantt would have been lost by now. At Pune cantt, the then Defnce Minister, Shri Pawar wanted to grab some land but military put its foot down.

In the case of Khukhri Park, this land must have been handed back to the civil by the staff of DDE in FULL Connivance with those at Station, sub-area, area and command headquarters. DDE staff would have also done the necessary paper work to show the land as still belonging to the civil. Because as long as it was military land no private construction could come up on it. NOT even for Kargil Widows. There is absolutely no provision to hand over military/cantonment land to any civil society NOT EVEN KARGIL WIDOWS or WIDOWERS! It was a massive conspiracy! the subarea commander went to NDC and came back as area commander and stayed on to earn, AVSM and PVSM. Was also cleared for promotion to the rank of lt-gen without commanding a division. The only other case I know where a maj-gen was cleared for the rank of lt-gen, was Military Secretary to the President. AHQ had initially said NO to the President and it is only when he forced the issue (I believe at the threat of resignation) that AHQ had relented.

Those who took a flat had to pay Rs 60 lakhs or so each. Now this is a tidy sum for an officer to muster. I also learn that this area commander was going around 'arranging' money for some senior officers! The DEO has a complete floor (may be four to six appartments, so figure out the ammount he had to pay!) Let us await the outcome of military inquiry and the CBI's efforts. Now a high court bench too has been asked to investigate the case.

I am of the firm view that much wrong was done at, both Sukhna and Mumbai and it is near impossible to justify the wrong doings in these two cases.
With regards,
Lt Gen Harwant Singh (Retd)
Former DCOAS
Present Status of Adarsh
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