New Delhi: There are over 15.94 lakh acres of land in possession of the Armed forces in the country, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The information was shared by Minister of State (Defence) Ajay Bhatt in the Rajya Sabha.
As per the data shared by MoS, Rajasthan emerged at the top of this list with the Armed forces possessing 823,445.85 acres, followed by Madhya Pradesh (169,692.88), Maharashtra (116,232.00), Uttar Pradesh (103,384.94) and Punjab (73,744.48).
The MoS stated that in cantonments, military stations, and other defense pockets, the land is transferred by way of lease or license basis from time to time to various service providers including private companies for the establishment of telecom infrastructure such as mobile towers, cell on wheels and laying underground telecom infrastructure.
"Presently, Ministry of Defence does not generally sanction grant of a lease or permanent transfer of defense land to private companies, entities or persons... However, in the past, based on public interest, certain pockets of defense lands were transferred either permanently or on lease for purposes such as education, hospital, electric sub-station, sports & recreation, garden, rehabilitation of soldiers, religious purposes, etc," he added.
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As for land under Defense PSUs, the figure stood at 69,069.661 acres with Maharashtra (26564.4 acres) topping the list followed by Telangana (5598.84 acres) and Karnataka (5092.80 acres), stated the MoS. Similarly, defense land under Armed Forces handed over to private sector companies for the purpose of establishing telecom infrastructure amounts to 8.38 acres with Rajasthan (2.66 acres) followed by West Bengal (1.44 acres) and Punjab (1.139 acres) securing the top three positions.
"The defense land can also be given on lease/ license with premium and rent fixed on the basis of nature of the public project. Further, in terms of MoD letter dated 21.10.2020, the defense land can also be transferred against the creation of equal value infrastructure for land-owning units of Defence," stated Bhatt. According to the data provided by the MoS, a total of 271.533 acres of defense land under the Armed Forces has been handed over to persons and entities for various other purposes.
