New Delhi: Out of around 18 lakh acres of defence land across the country, about 11,152 acres is under encroachment, the Centre informed the Parliament on Friday.
Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth said this in a written response to a query in Lok Sabha.
The defence ministry was asked state-wise details on the total area of defence land currently lying unused, encroached or under litigation across the country.
“Out of around 18 lakh acres of defence land across the country, about 11,152 acres is under encroachment,” he said.
Seth said 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 has been identified which is 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,” the MoS said.
In his response, he also shared state-wise details related to defence land, as well details related to encroached defence lands.
“Any other lands, which may appear unused are meant for training, mobilisation practice, constructions as per Key Location Plans (KLP) and construction of Married Accommodation etc for the armed forces,” he said.
About 8,113 acres of defence land is “under litigation” across the country, Seth said.
The ministry was also asked whether the government has conducted any assessment of the impact of prolonged acquisition processes or eviction drives on affected rural communities.
“No such assessment has been carried out by the Ministry of Defence. However, compensation and rehabilitation packages as applicable under the provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land, Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 are awarded to the landowners whenever private lands are acquired by MoD under said Act,” he said.
In a separate query, the ministry was asked whether the government has “reportedly returned Rs 12,500 crore” from its 2024-25 capital acquisition budget due to “slow procurement”.
“Defence Services were allocated an amount of Rs 1,72,000.00 crore at Budget Estimate (BE) stage under Capital Outlay (Grant No. 21) for the Financial year 2024-25. The same was revised to Rs 1,59,500.00 crore by Ministry of Finance (MoF) at Revised Estimate (RE) stage, which was completely utilised by the Ministry of Defence during the Financial Year 2024-25,” the MoS said.
Asked whether the government proposes to implement the proposed amendments to the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) to minimise the procurement times, Seth replied, “Yes”.
