Sukna, Adarsh scams put armed forces in bad light: AK Antony

Noting that land scams such as Sukna and Adarsh Society have projected armed forces in a "bad" light, defence minister AK Antony today said that policies would be framed to bar local military authorities from directly issuing 'no objection certificates' to private realtors.

Addressing a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee, he said that the scams have exposed the "gaps" in the defence land management system and their records will be computerised.

"The defence ministry will shortly be framing policies covering the issue of NOCs... No NOC would be issued, especially to private builders directly by the Local Military Authorities (LMAs)," he said.

The recent Sukna, Kandivali and Adarsh land scams related to issuing of NOCs by local military commanders to private realtors and have led the ministry to change its policies for granting permission for construction on defence land or in areas adjacent to military stations.

The defence minister, who maintained that the land scams have projected the armed forces in "bad" light, said a policy is also being framed for cases where the local laws require consultation with local military authorities for construction of buildings on lands adjacent to defence installations.

Antony said that the Works of Defence Act, which provides for restrictions on building activity around defence installations, would be amended to make it relevant to present day situations.

"The Act has not been amended for the last over 100 years. The government is also looking at the de-hiring policy to avert any misuse," he said.

The minister said after the scams, the ministry is giving top priority to computerisation of the records of the 17 lakh acres of land under it as "without computerisation, it will be difficult to manage our vast land records."

He said a number of decisions have been taken by the ministry regarding land management and proper storage of important title-related records.

Elaborating on the difficulties in defence land management, Antony said under the Constitution of India, land is a state subject and if for a particular piece of land the ownership records tally both in ministry records and state records, there is no problem.

"But in some instances, this is not so. Moreover, vested interests lose no time in exploiting gaps in the system," he said.