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A young Indian Junior golfer plays a stroke at the Army golf course in New Delhi
India's Army top brass "grossly misused" valuable government land to build exclusive golf courses for its senior officers, according to a parliamentary report.
The Army is believed to have built as many as 90 "prohibited" golf courses around the country, many of them on land designated for training.
The public accounts committee report called on the Indian defence ministry to hold its own inquiry into how military land had been turned into private golf clubs which sold memberships to civilians and foreign diplomats.
According to the committee, club houses had been hired out to civilians as wedding and party venues but the funds generated had not been declared or passed to the government.
"The Committee deplores the gross misuse of golf courses and recommends that entire policy of golf courses be revisited and remedial action be taken to ensure that facilities for armed forces personnel are not abused in any manner," the report said.
The clubs count among the best courses in India. Delhi's 18-hole army course at Dhaula Kuan is peppered with mature trees and ponds and boasts a club house, a TaylorMade professional golf shop concession, a pitch and putt practice area and a floodlit driving range. It has a dedicated food and beverage operation and refreshment stands throughout the 6,500 yard course. Foreign players are charged £25 a round for foreigners at weekends and £15 on weekdays, while serving officers pay 75 pence.
According to the MPs' report these commercial charges and the use of vast tracts of defence ministry land for an activity it does not regard as a military activity, sport or training, amount to "gross misuse".
It questioned a decision by the Army Chief to list golf as a 'sport' in 2004 and said it was "shocked to find that Defence authorities had been offering membership of the golf courses to civilians on payment basis so much so that in places like Delhi even foreign diplomats were being given membership and revenue generated from the civilian membership was not being credited to the government account".
Indian Army 'misused government land to build golf courses for officers' - Telegraph