Belgaum: The Army has expressed shock and surprise over the State Government's proposal to construct a building akin to the Vidhana Soudha here to hold legislature sessions on land that belongs to the Army.

Brig. Clement Samuel, Commandant, Karnataka and Kerala Sub Area, Bangalore, who was here on Thursday, told presspersons that the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, had approached the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC) with the proposal on Wednesday.

He said the land, measuring 754 acres and 33 guntas, in Turkmatti Kuran (adjacent to KLES Hospital) had been in possession of the Army since 1873.

A portion of the land (13 acres and 25 guntas) was transferred to the Public Works Department (for widening National Highway 4) in June 1978 and 20 acres was given to the Indian Council of Medical Research in September 1984 with the approval of the Ministry of Defence.

Now the Army is in possession of 721 acres and 8 guntas of land, which is being used by the Military Farm to grow grass/hay and also for training purposes.

He said the land had never been leased. Any transfer of Army land to any other agency could be done only with the approval of the Ministry of Defence.

The Army has already approved the shifting of the Junior Leaders Wing to the Turkmatti area, and work is likely to begin shortly. Brig. Samuel said the State Government had not submitted a written request for the transfer of the land. On the contrary, it was questioning the validity of Army records. The Army had proper records to show that it was the custodian of the land, which had not been fenced or marked with boundary pillars.

`Issue discussed'

He said the Army would take up the matter with the Defence Ministry but ruled out lodging a complaint as the matter had already been discussed with Chief Secretary B.K. Das. Senior government officials should have properly verified the records before coming up with the proposal, he said.

The Chief Minister was reportedly planning to lay the foundation stone of the building on Thursday. However, reliable sources told The Hindu that the Government had dropped the idea.

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