Raksha Mantri has approved the proposal for creation of a new Defence Estates Circle exclusively for Uttarakhand on May 26, 2022. In view of the difficulties faced in managing large tracts of defence land in the State and demand of residents of Cantonments located in Uttrakhand, MoD will establish an independent office of Defence Estates at Dehradun and a sub-office at Ranikhet.
The creation of a new Defence Estates Circle at Dehradun exclusively for Uttrakhand will facilitate the residents/ organizations in getting timely and quick access to various services of defence land management. In order to further decentralize the governance structure, Raksha Mantri has also approved establishment of a sub-office at Ranikhet under the administrative jurisdiction of Defence Estates Dehradun to deal exclusively with 6 districts of Kumaon region of the State.
Earlier the entire defence land and Cantonments in Uttrakhand were covered under two distinct Defence Estates Circles headquartered at Meerut and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. These offices being distantly located posed various functional problems by causing delays and difficulties to Cantonment residents of Uttrakhand in getting timely and prompt redressal of their grievances, apart from managing of defence lands located in far and remote areas in the State.
The Armed Forces also faced problems in land acquisitions, survey & demarcation of defence land and handling of litigation matters. The establishment of the new Defence Estates Circle for Uttarakhand is a huge step forward in bringing the Government closer to the people in keeping with the objective of ‘ease of living’ and ‘ease of doing business’.