Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly speaker and senior leader of BJP Nirmal Singh has accused Army of “harassing” people after the forces raised objections over the construction of his house next to an ammunition depot in Nagrota.

According to the report published in a national daily Army had written a letter to Singh terming construction of house on 2,000-sq-m plot estimated 12 acres bought in 2014 as “illegal” and “has implications on the security of a major ammunition storage facility as well as the safety of all personnel living in close vicinity of the ammunition depot”.

However, Singh as per report has termed Army’s objections over his construction of house near ammo depot as “politically motivated”.

“ What the Army is claiming, it is their view and not binding on me. A village called Ban is adjacent to it. During militancy, the Army built a wall around it. They are saying that you can’t construct anything 1000 m from the outer wall of the depot. My house is 530 m. The moment I started construction, there was opposition. It is politically motivated,’’ the report quoted Singh as having said.

:“They (army) don’t let people construct even a toilet. People are harassed. You should speak to people there. Because it is my house, it is politically motivated. They started objecting. Why don’t they get a stay, they can’t do it”.Singh is reported to have said to the media

The report quoted Singh as saying that they had taken the land (adjacent to the Army’s Ammunition depot in Nagrota) in 2014”, where IIT and an IIM are coming up in the same area but they are more than 1000 m away.

“There shouldn’t have been an ammunition depot at this place,” the report quoted Singh as having said.