Scams prompt Jaitley to review defence land management

New Delhi: Defence Minister Arun Jaitley reviewed the functioning of the department managing military land against the backdrop of several scams involving defence land such as Adarsh, Sukna and Jodhpur during the UPA regime. Jaitley was yesterday given a detailed presentation by the Directorate General (Defence Establishment), which looks after the management of the defence land, and is believed to have been briefed about the status of the investigations and court cases in various land scams, Defence Ministry officials said here. [caption id=“attachment_1512481” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arun Jaitley. AFP.[/caption] He was also briefed about the steps taken by the department to curb encroachment and other types of wrongdoings in managing the land with the Ministry, they said. The Defence Ministry is one of the biggest land owners in the country with around 17 lakh acres of land under its control. The DGDE has also initiated projects such as ‘Raksha Bhoomi’ under which it is digitising the record of land and buildings with it across the country. The project has been completed in several military stations across the country. Several scams involving defence land have surfaced including the ones in Sukna, Adarsh, Kandivali and Mumbai in last few years. After the scams came to light, the Defence Ministry took several measures to streamline the management of defence land. The Ministry had even taken away the right of the local military stations and their commanders to issue No-objection Certificates to anybody for construction over defence land or land adjoining defence areas. PTI