SRINAGAR: As the government declared 1034 kanals of land in Gulmarg and 354 in Sonamarg as ‘strategic areas for armed forces’, authorities here insisted that there was “nothing new” it.

Quoting Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Pandurang Kondbarao Pole news agency GNS reported that it was just nodded by the government to allow the use of land to army for training purposes.

“Basically there is nothing new in this strategic area for all these lands are already underuse of the army for decades, even for more than 30 to 40 years now for training and other relevant things,” Pole said.

“At both the places (Gulmarg and Sonamarg), training of high altitude are conducted for which the army has already acquired land there and some is requisitioned land”, he said, adding, “no new area is being added.”

He further said: “Just for the requirement of training, they (army) may be in need of construction of training halls etc and this was done to enable them to have the required infrastructure. It was important and as the nod from the administration was given”. There is “nothing new” in it as such, Pole added.

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