The Directorate General, Defence Estates (abbreviate as: DGDE) is the main regulatory and advisory body that provides inputs on matters of Cantonments and defence land matters to the Ministry of Defence and service headquarters i.e, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and other organizations under Ministry of Defence of Government of India. DGDE is the headquarters of the Indian Defence Estates Service.[1]
The main responsibilities of DGDE are:Acquisition of lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation of displaced persons, Hiring and requisitioning of lands and buildings.[2]
It also ensures implementation policies, rules, regulations and executive instructions:
See main article: Indian Defence Estates Service.
The personnel of Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) (an organised Group 'A' Central Civil Service, requirement by UPSC) are main officers who manage the DGDE and Cantonments in whole India, they works under Ministry of Defence.[3]
DGDE has under its jurisdiction six Principal Directorates namely- Principal Directors, Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern, South-western and Western Command.Under the Principal Directorates there are 39 Defence Estates Offices and 4 ADEO Circles for management of Defence lands in the country.
There are total 61 Cantonment Boards or simply Cantonments in India under DGDE. These are local bodies responsible for providing civic administration and implementing the Central Govt schemes of social welfare, public health, hygiene, safety, water supply, sanitation, urban renewal and education.
These Cantonments are managed by an IDES officers. The head IDES officer of an Cantonment posted as CEO.The term of office of a member of a board is five years. A cantonment board consists of eight elected members, three nominated military members, three ex-officio members (station commander, garrison engineer and senior executive medical officer), and one representative of the district magistrate.
There are 62 Cantonment Boards in India, managed by Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE).[4]
The cantonment takes care of mandatory duties such as provision of public health, water supply, sanitation, primary education, and street lighting etc.[5] As the resources are owned by Government of India, (1) For every cantonment there shall be a Cantonment Board.(2) Every Board shall be deemed to be a municipality under clause (e) of article 243P of the Constitution for the purposes of-(a) receiving grants and allocations; or(b) implementing the Central Government schemes of social welfare, public health, hygiene, safety, water supply, sanitation, urban renewal and education.It is the duty of the president of the cantonment board: