December 10, 2013. The parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) on Monday slammed the Union defence ministry, Maharashtra government and armed forces for abject mismanagement of defence land. It called for investigation into “gross misuse” of defence properties.
Turning to “unauthorised use” of defence land for golf and other activities, the PAC said it was “shocked” to find defence authorities were offering membership of the golf courses to civilians and foreign diplomats, and the revenue being so generated was not being credited to government accounts.
Over half of the around 180 golf courses in India are either owned or run by the armed forces. But since the “Scales of Accommodation” for defence services do not include golf as “an authorised activity on military recreation grounds’, they are regularly pulled up for it in CAG reports.
The PAC said the entire policy on the golf courses should be “revisited comprehensively” with “appropriate remedial action” being taken to ensure “recreational facilities needed for the armed forces are not misused/abused in any manner”.
It also asked MoD to submit “a status paper” on the golf courses and environmental parks used by the military and the nature of their membership as well as the annual revenues generated through them and the accounts where they are credited.
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