Save our Cantonments from Landsharks in The Guise of Politicians & Bureaucrats

Dear Friends,

.

I am writing this mail for all of you to please read carefully and think what is to be done quickly to save our cantonments from the landsharks in the guise of politicians and bureaucrats. There is not much time in hand and none to waste. Can we motivate some activists to take the matter up as of utmost public interest. Are we to lose all that we have for the sake of some (of our colleagues) who sold their souls to filthy lucre?

.

The Parliament of India has appointed a Standing Committee on Defence to examine various aspects related to the subjects 'Functioning of Military Cantonments and Stations' and 'Management of Defence Land'. Those desirous of sending any memoranda are to do so withintwo weeks of publication of the press release! I saw the publication in The Telegraph of Kolkata on 29 Jan 2011. Please see the attachment.

.

The quiet publication of this very important matter in newspapers without any announcement over the electronic media, which is much more popular and has a much greater viewership than the print media, makes one smell a rat. Also, the undue haste in asking for submission of the memoranda, giving just two weeks for people to react, is indicative of the ill-intent of the powers that be.

.

Are we about to lose control over our military lands and cantonments to these wily politicians and bureaucrats? Will these unprincipled people take over control, declare much of it surplus to requirement and then sell it off to make a lot of scam money? Are they taking the pretext of the Sukna and the Adarsh Scams to further their devious plans? Who are the people who had control over these lands even in the present dispensation? It was the Defence Estates Officer, who is an officer from the Allied Services of the Civil Services, and the other bureaucrats who are from the IAS! And these same people are set to usurp control over these lands after this Committee recommends that the military is not capable of handling their estates and all control must be handed over to the civil bureaucrats! So far the only people who have been punished are the 'faujis'; some generals, who were collaborators, have paid for their misdemeanors but not a single civil servant, who were the actual culprits, has been brought to book.

.

It is surprising that the media, both electronic and print, has not picked up this surreptitious move of the politico-bureaucrat combine to further their plans of ripping the wealth of this country. Their greed and hunger does not seem to have been satisfied even after all the scams that have been surfacing one after the other, in rapid succession, over the last one year, even if our memory fails us of events that occurred before that!

.

I hope our Chiefs will not forget that they have a responsibility towards their progeny in the Services. I hope they will fight this devious move tooth and nail before it becomes an act of parliament which will then have to be implemented without demur.

.

Best regards,

.

Wg Cdr CK Sharma (Retd)