Indian Army chiefs 'awarded themselves flats built for war heroes'

Indian Army chiefs awarded themselves new flats built for war heroes and their widows in one of Mumbais prime neighbourhoods, an Indian government watchdog has ruled.A report by Indias Comptroller and Auditor General into how ministers, senior officials and army chiefs broke the rules to build a tower block in the heart of Indias commercial capital described the ruse as a classic example of the fence eating the crops.Several officials, relatives of ministers, and two former army chiefs, including the recently retired General Deepak Kapoor, had been allocated flats in the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society.The society had won permission to build the block after it was proposed as a project to benefit those soldiers who had suffered during military service and their widows and dependants.The episode of Adarsh Co-operative Housing reveals how a group of select officials placed in key posts could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime government land – a public property – for personal benefit. They resorted to falsification of records, suppression of facts, [the] ruse of welfare of servicemen and their widows and children, flouting of acts and rules, the report concluded.An audit found that from 1998 to 2010 all General Officers-Commanding except one became members of the society, including former Army Chiefs of Staff General Deepak Kapoor, General N.C Vij. Former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Madhvendra Singh and Southern Army Commander Lt. Gen G.S Sihota were also Adarsh members.