A total of 9,622.807 acres of defence land has been reported to be under encroachment across the country, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
The encroachment is highest in Uttar Pradesh where 2204.836 acres of defence land has been encroached upon, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik informed the Upper House in a written reply to the question of AAP MP Sushil Kumar Gupta.
According to the information given by the MoS for Defence, 21.97 acres of defence land has been encroached upon in Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar - 26.521 acre, Assam - 460.5397 acre, Arunachal Pradesh - 87.8141 acre, Bihar- 478.974 acre, Chhattisgarh - 165.768 acre, Delhi - 111.3013 acre, Goa- 4.264 acre, Gujarat - 164.6238 acre, and Haryana - 538.8215 acre.
Similarly, 60.1421 acres of defence land are under encroachment in Himachal Pradesh, 339.2447 acre in Jammu and Kashmir, 304.932 acre in Jharkhand, 131.7923 acre in Karnataka, 2.6839 acre in Kerala, 0.08 acre in Lakshadweep, 923.5062 acre in Maharashtra, 1639.83 acre in Madhya Pradesh, 6.1308 acre in Manipur, 11.0855 acre in Meghalaya, and 357.53 acre in Nagaland have been encroached upon.
"Detection, prevention and removal of encroachment is a continuous exercise. Action for removal of encroachments on the defence land is taken under the provisions of Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 as well as under the Cantonment Act, 2006. Cases are also taken up with the State or the municipal authorities for resolution of the problem," said Naik.
Giving details of the steps taken by the government to check encroachment, the Minister further said: "Strengthening of defence land management by way of digitisation of land records is on along with survey, demarcation and verification of defence lands and land audit, issue of detailed instructions by the government emphasising the need for ensuring vigilance, detection and prevention of new encroachments."
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He also informed that the process of defence land audit has been institutionalised from 2011-12 as a continuing process and court cases are being pursued to evict encroachers.
"Close liaison is being maintained with revenue and civil police authorities to detect an attempt to encroach upon the defence land by encroachers. Defence lands located in isolated locations are being fenced and regular patrolling is being carried out to safeguard the lands from encroachers and unauthorised construction," he said.