On Monday, the Center informed the Lok Sabha that around 45,906 acres of defence land, under the management of different services and organisations, are vacant.
Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt responded to a question, saying that service headquarters have informed him that the land under their management is only used for bonafide military purposes and for strategic operations and security requirements.
On the question of defence land Bhatt replied, “Approximately 45,906 acres of defence land under the management of different services and organisations of the ministry of defence is presently lying vacant. Post corporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board, surplus land of approximately 3152 acres located at 16 ordnance factories have been identified.”
A second question was answered by him saying that the percentage of total purchases of military hardware from foreign countries has been steadily declining since 2018-19. He said that the percentage of capital procurement from abroad was 48.68 in 2018-19 that declined to 41.89 in 2019-20. The figure for 2020-21 was 36 percent, while it was 39.44 percent in 2021-22.
