NEW DELHI, July 10: Having bullets for breakfast may not be everybody's idea of fun, but those who are planning to move into farmhouses inside Tilpat firing range -- a sprawling 4,200 acres owned by Air Force in Faridabad certainly carry nerves of steel.

While M/s Leisure Valley Farms offer a calm, peaceful and pollution-free environment, local authorities say the houses are located in 80 acres of encroached land which falls within the firing range. Though the Air Force top brass has finally woken up, it may be too late. Already some 40 farmhouses have been sold to public and there is provision for 40 more. An advertisement which ran in national dailies till last month promised ``a lush green farmhouse with a dream cottage, teak plantation and fruit orchards.''

It was not the AF but District Collector of Faridabad B K Panigrahi who spotted the encroachment last month.

He was quick to alert the Ministry of Defence, which in turn informed the Air Headquarters.

The Air Force has now filed a caveat in a Faridabad court urging it not to entertain any petition by the encroachers for a stay on their eviction. Simultaneously, in a letter dispatched to senior Air Force authorities in Hindon Air Base on July 1, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Faridabad has offered all possible help to kick out the squatters.

Writes the SDM, ``Reference to your letter No 28-w/s-2003/23/wks dated June 26, 1997, the entire land of village Solarpur (Khasra no 1 to 354) belongs to Ministry of Defence via Gazette notification no April 5, 1952 and used by the Air Force Station Hindon, Ghaziabad, for air bombing and firing range.''``Any encroachment or sale of this land in the shape of farmhouse is illegal. The entire land belongs to Defence as stated and demarcated by Tehsildar, Faridabad, on June 25, 1997. No one is to be allowed to enter in this land premises since it is declared prohibited area. M/s Leisure Valley Farms and Global properties, South Delhi, has no right or connection with this land. Any police help required by you will be provided on priority without any delay,'' writes the SDM.

The letter adds: ``You are requested to fix the boundary pillar immediately around this land and to guard against encroachers. It is also intimated to you that no sale deed will be registered by Tehsildar, Faridabad, pertaining to this land and he has been directed accordingly.''

Spurred by the SDM's order, officers at Hindon base last week conducted an air recce of the entire area. But even they, when contacted by The Indian Express, could not explain how the builder managed to grab the land and sell it off (it took him two years to do so) and yet no action was taken.

Proprietor of Leisure Valley Farms Sandeep Jain, when contacted, denied that he had encroached upon the Air Force land. ``I have the required documents of Uttar Pradesh Government and the land falls under Chak-Salarpur,'' he insisted. But Jain's explanation is debunked by the Faridabad DC.

Says Panigrahi, ``I can assure you there is no place with the name of Chak-Salarpur under the sun. If it exists, the builders have created it out of nowhere. I have done my bit by alerting the Air Force. Now it's for them to do the needful.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.