BJP vents concern over army properties being frittered away

New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) BJP today expressed concern overreports of army properties being "frittered away", especiallyin Maharashtra, and demanded that the government do a completeaudit of its defence assets and assure the nation that theyhave not fallen into wrong hands.

"There is a consistent attempt at releasing pieces ofland which are in the occupation of or owned by defenceauthorities and that particularly coming from Maharashtraagain and again is very worrying and it has very serioussecurity implications," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharamansaid.

She was reacting to media reports that a one-acre armyland in Khandivli was allegedly being frittered away withoutthe knowledge or permission of the defence forces.

"There seems to be a nexus between private builders,politicians, bureaucrats and some army officials too. However,if some of these bad elements have a connivance with thepolitical and the bureaucratic elements resulting in loss ofarmy''s assets, it poses a very serious question of whatprotection the defence has for its own land and other assets,"Sitharaman said.

She demanded a complete, quick and comprehensive auditof all defence assets, preparation of a comprehensiveinventory list, and a Defence Ministry inquiry into the matterand said it should be ensured that such assets don''t fall intothe hands of personal financial gain-seeking elements.

"BJP feels that in Maharashtra a repeated occurrence ofsuch frittering away consistently happening much before theAdarsh scandal has even settled down, inquiry not completed,we hear of one more such thing," Sitharaman said.

Putting the blame on the Congress, which has been inpower in Maharashtra for more than 10 years now, she said theparty''s "cavalier attitude" towards defence properties wasresponsible for it.

"We express deep concern over it," she said.