Society threatened defence officer

MUMBAI: A defence officer who had raised objections over land allotment to Adarsh was in turn threatened with counter-allegations by the society members that he was harming the "interests of war widows".
This was revealed in a confidential report prepared by Lt Colonel Rameshwar Singh on the orders of the army chief. The report has been submitted to the Adarsh inquiry commission.The report makes another startling revelation that the Army headquarters at Mumbai had given false information to the Parliament in 2003 that the Adarsh land had never been in the possession of the military. "The headquarters of Maharashtra and Goa area and HQ, southern command gave a wrong reply regarding possession/occupation of the land to a parliament question on the subject," the report said.
The report agreed that the land had been reclaimed in the 1970s and the state owned it, but was in the possession of the army, which had protected it from encroachers. An eco-park, called the Khukri park, with trees existed on the land. "There was no reason for vacating the land in favour of Adarsh housing society," said the report.
The army's own stand about whether a highrise overlooking army installations wavered. In 2005, the army HQ wrote to Adarsh after the society uprooted trees from the park and replanted them on army land. The letter warned that the society had committed trespass and asked why an FIR should not be lodged. The army also wrote to the collector reiterating the security implications and sought a list of the members.
The defence estate officer (DEO) had objected to the 'NOC' granted by the Mumbai HQ of the army and said that the allocation of land was a loss of army interests. "Adarsh society responded by stating that the DEO was harming the interests of service personnel/ex-servicemen and war widows as he was not allotted a flat in the society," the report said.
The report added that no specific NOC was given by army for Adarsh, but a letter by the headquarters at Mumbai was taken as the certificate. The letter also said the land fell outside the army's boundaries. Major general S S Jog had earlier told the inquiry commission that he had written the letter under pressure from his senior officer, major general A Kumar, who had "threatened" him.