Keep army land for our men, not President: Retired servicemen

Pune: A set of retired army men in the city is a disgruntled lot. That President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's retirement home is proposed to come up on army land in Khadki has vexed the ex-servicemen, who say army land should be reserved for former defence personnel who do not own homes. "We don't have any grievances against the President, but this is army land and it should be reserved for it," said Lt Col Suresh Patil, (Retd) of the Green Thumb group.

Patil said the issue of giving the defence land to the President had been discussed with Anna Hazare during his historic hunger strike at Ramleela Ground in Delhi. "Hazare himself was an ex-serviceman and was against many things in the defence. We want that the homeless ex-servicemen should get their houses first. The President can get other properties in Pune or her village," said Patil.

Patil, however, admitted the President had got the land by furnishing all the required papers legally. "The Honourable President is the head of all defence forces and so, she should return the property. In fact, the President should be advised properly by the defence officers," said Patil. "This is demoralising to ex-servicemen. We don't want another Adarsh scam in the city. If defence land is given out like that, then even the president's post will have to be brought under the ambit of the Jan Lokpal bill."

Patil was supported by Col Gulabrao Jadhav (Retd), Prakash Samant, Nandu Kalate, Prabhakar Kondhalkar and Krishna Yadav. Patil said there was a dearth of housing for ex-servicemen in the city and over 98 per cent of them were still in search of houses. "There are over 50,000 such families in the city and many are still struggling to get a home," Patil said.

Kondhalkar, the coordinator of the Green Thumb group, said the land for President's proposed residence was given at a cheap rate of Rs 1.10 lakh, while the value of the land in question is above Rs one crore. "This is at the cost of taxpayers' money. The Ministry of Defence gave the no-objection certificate," Kondhalkar said.

Not all agree

Col Jayant Chitale (Retd), president of Maharashtra Military Foundation, however, disagreed with the opposition to the land being given to the President for her retirement home. "The President is the chief of all three defence wings of the nation and can get the land for living under special provision. Though the land has been sold at a cheap rate, there is nothing wrong in it," he said. "In fact, it should be a matter of pride to Punekars that the President Madam is settling in the city and not going to other states."

Agitation to bring defence under RTI

Information about defence services should be available through the RTI Act, said Prabhakar Kondhalkar. He said over 100 senior officials have been involved in corruption cases since last five years. "We are burning the effigies of eight defence top officials in the agitation on Septemeber 5. Effigies of following defence officers will be burned by the Green Thumb Group: General Kapur, Gen Vij, Gen Sihota, Gen Hudda, Gen Thamburaj, Naval Chief Madvendra Singh, Gen Adarsh Prakah and Maj Gen G I Singh.