10,000 acres of defence land under encroachment: Government

Over 10,000 acres of defence land are under encroachment across the country, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. According to details provided by her, a maximum of 2,203 acres of defence land have been encroached in Uttar Pradesh followed by 1,736 acres in Madhya Pradesh and 734 acres in Haryana. She said the government was taking steps to strengthen management of defence land which include digitisation of land records. "Ministry of defence has prepared the digital data of entire defence land-holding in a software called 'Raksha Bhoomi'," she said, adding a total of 10,028 acres of defence land have been encroached.