The Delhi High Court on Thursday took a serious view of the encroachment of over 2700 acres of Defence land at various places in the country and said it was a very serious matter. "It is a very serious matter, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D K Jain said that while taking strong exception to Defence Ministry's approach is casual in this regard.

The court said that multi- storeyed buildings had been raised on the defence land, but the authorities were not aware of it. "It shows the concern of your (ministry's) officials," the court told the government counsel.
Directorate General Defence Estate (DGDE) in an affidavit admitted that as on December 31, 1999 about 2,788 acres of Defence land was under unauthorized encroachment at various places in the country but this was not a result of a nexus between land mafia as had been alleged in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
DGDE stated that the encroachment of 2,788 acres of land was only a small percentage considering the fact that the directorate had under its management about 68,000 acres of land in the country.
Claiming that a number of social-political factors over which DGDE has no control had contributed to illegal control on Defence land, the affidavit said that growing population, inflow of migrants and homelessness were among the major reasons.
"The encroachments could not be removed in the absence of inadequate assistance from police, "the DGDE said.
Bureau Report