Policy changes to check encroachment of defence land: Antony

Mumbai, Jan 21 (PTI) The government was not careful inthe past to ensure defence lands in the country were notencroached upon but policy changes are in the offing toprevent such incidents, Defence Minister A K Antony saidtoday.

"We are making policy changes so that in future suchincidents (encroachments) do not occur. We haveintitutionalsed a mechanism to prevent such things," theminister told reporters after commissioning Italian builtfleet-tanker INS Deepak into the Indian Navy at the NavalDockyard here.

The government has decided to computerise entire defenceland, he said. "We are tightening the system in a time boundmanner. In the past we we were not careful and we did notmaintain records of defence lands properly," he said.

"As far as issuing NOCs on the land belonging to Defenceis concerned, we are looking into the complaints we havereceived," the minister said.

"Henceforth we will ensure that only higher levelofficers go through all these procedures and such NOCs willnot be issued," Antony said, adding defence land records wouldbe systematically computerised.

The Minister''s statement comes in the backdrop of theAdarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai, in which names of someretired army officials and a few politicians have cropped up.

Responding to a question on the arrest of three Chinesecitizens near the Indo-Nepal border and their allegedincursions, "As far as the arrests of three Chinese citizensare concerned, I do not want to jump into any conclusion.

Authorities are questioning them," Antony said. .