Adarsh: Army, government still wrack heads over ownership

From the former collector’s lack of knowledge of a letter sent from his own office to the army to an army representative’s revelation of providing wrong information in the parliament; last week’s proceedings before the two-member commission set up to probe the alleged Adarsh CHS scam put army’s claim over the land in doubt once again.

Last week, the army representative reiterated army’s stand that the land belonged to the state, but the possession was with the army. Hence, taking advantage of the land’s long occupancy by the army, it is de facto a
defence land.

Last Monday, former collector Debashish Chakraborty  claimed that he was unaware of the letter sent from his own office on March 29, 2000, to the general officer commanding, which “requested to confirm that there is no objection to allot the land to the proposed society of the service personnel.” Interestingly, it was the reply of this letter, from the army, which has been taken as the NOC for Adarsh from army’s side.

Towards the end of his deposition, Chakraborty’s flip-flops highlighted Tuesday’s proceedings.

After accepting that it was necessary to obtain possession of the land from the defence for transferring the same to the government, he took a u-turn saying the land in question belongs to the government.

The highlight of the week was delivered by Brigadier Deepak Saxena, who said the army had provided wrong information to the Parliament in 2003 when a question related to the occupation of the land was asked.