Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Encroachment of land in the state is currently very much in focus. However, encroachment is not limited to government land, PGR-VGR, or forest land, and this menace has even extended to land of the defence forces of the country. There are even some lands under defence forces in Assam that are embroiled in litigation.
However, this phenomenon is not seen only in Assam but is also evident in other parts of the country, including most states in the Northeast. Out of around 18 lakh acres of defence land across the country, about 11,152 acres are under encroachment.
According to available information, there are 726.21 acres of defence land encroached upon in Assam, the highest among all the NE states. Defence land encroached upon in the other NE states: 356.1 acres in Nagaland, 77.66 acres in Arunachal Pradesh, 64.84 acres in Sikkim, 13.34 acres in Meghalaya, 5.64 acres in Manipur and 0.003 acres in Mizoram. The total defence land under encroachment in the 7 NE states, including Assam, is 1244.42 acres.
It needs to be noted that the defence land in Assam that is under litigation is 47.27 acres.
According to the Defence Ministry, defence land is utilised for bona fide military purposes and to meet strategic, operational and security needs of the Armed Forces. Around 45,906 acres of vacant defence land have been identified as surplus to the requirements of the Armed Forces. The details of these lands have been circulated to the other Central Government Departments for ascertaining their requirements for these land pockets. Any other lands which may appear unused are meant for training, mobilization practice, constructions as per Key Location Plans (KLP), and construction of married accommodation, etc., for the personnel of the Armed Forces.
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