New Delhi, March 25
A five star hotel, a biscuit factory, several marriage halls, clubs and 97 unauthorised golf courses are thriving on prime defence land spread across the country.

The shocking details figure in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in Parliament today. Slamming the department of Defence Estates that works directly under the Ministry of Defence, the report questions the Army for allowing golf courses on its land without permission.

The report points at the cavalier manner of managing the whopping 17.31 lakh acres of Defence land. Some 14,539 acres out of this were encroached upon. 2,500 acres — some of it valued at several crores per acre — have been leased out for “pennies”.

The Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta told reporters “The leased out 2500 acres are valued at Rs 11,033 crore”. But the earning from the leased land is only Rs 2.13 crore per annum.

A total 3780 cases of lease renewal were pending, she informed, while the department was not pursuing as many as 1,800 cases in which tenants should have been evicted.

The CAG report points out that Clark Shiraz, a luxury hotel in Agra, is paying a ‘grand’ sum of Rs 994 ( yes, nine hundred and ninety-four Rupees) per month as lease money for its 5.68 acre property that has 237 rooms.

The hotel is located within 1.5 kms of the Taj Mahal and tariffs are over Rs 5,000 per night. The Grand Hotel in Agra is paying Rs 157 per month for its 1.40 acres.

Over 122 acres of Defence land have been leased out to clubs in Pune, Secunderabad, Lucknow and Agra. The clubs are being used for marriages, parties and exhibitions. The Secunderabad club, spread across 20 acres originally meant for ‘welfare of armed forces’, today has 33 guest rooms, a restaurant and even a petrol pump.

Golf is not an authorised ‘sporting activity’ but 97 golf courses are running on 8,000 acres across cantonments on land earmarked for “Occupation of forces”. The golf courses are at cantonments in Bangalore, Secunderabad, Bathinda, Hissar, Jaipur, Mumbai, Fazilka, Suratgarh, Sriganganagar, Dehradun, Ranikhet, Roorkee, Kota and Bikaner.

Gautam Guha, DG Audit services clarified “ We are not against golf but the ministry should first include golf as one of the activities for the forces and make official provision for these courses. At present private persons and, in some cases, even foreigners are allowed to tee-off.”

The CAG has also touched upon what are called “Old Grant Bungalows” - they were given out on lease, some of them before independence. The CAG report says three such bungalows in Ferozepore are being used as wedding halls. Five in Kasauli have hotels running in them for years. Five more in Dagshai - in Himachal - have been converted into hotels. 21 such bungalows in Jallandhar, spread across 100 acres, have been sold out. Another one in Meerut is being used to run a biscuit factory.

The proverbial icing on the cake is that local military authorities are not aware of the ‘exact location’ of a whopping 999 acres of land spread across Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Shimla, Barnala and Ropar. Western Command, Chandimandir said these lands were with the ministry but had no documentary evidence to back it.