No agreement between M’laya Govt, Army on exchange of land: PRO

SHILLONG: The Defence authorities have asserted that they never ‘expressed their willingness to hand over their land’ to the Meghalaya government.
Defence PRO Amit Mahajan, while reacting to a news item, on Wednesday said that the local Army authorities have only expressed willingness to ‘consider proposals’ once received and never ‘expressed willingness to hand over their land’ to the Government of Meghalaya.
Stating that the consideration, if at all, will only be on offer of ‘equal value land’ contiguous to current Defence land holding and not ‘equal measure of land’, the PRO also termed as false the report that the Defence establishment had agreed in principle to hand over land near Garrison Ground for expansion of the road from Civil Hospital junction to General’s Point.
“The Defence establishment has never expressed any such agreement,” the PRO claimed.
According to Mahajan, the only proposal which is under favourable consideration with the local Defence establishment is the proposal to make available Defence land for construction of a flyover from Raps Mansion to Sweeper’s Colony only on offer of ‘equal value’ land in exchange.
Stating that the State Government has not approached the Defence establishment with any formal proposal after identifying land to be offered to the Army, Mahajan said the final ‘agreement’ for exchange of land can only be arrived at after the proposal is received, examined and finally accepted at the level of the Ministry of Defence after the same is concurred to by the Integrated Headquarter of the Ministry of Defence (Army).