Lucknow, Sept. 7 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has directed the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and the Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board to inform it as to what action has been taken by them in compliance with the order dated August 12,2025 in connection with the alleged encroachment on the Army firing land in the city's Arjunganj area. The court directed to list the case on September 22. The court had on August 12 directed the LDA and the Board to conduct a survey to ascertain the alleged encroachments within the precincts of the Army firing range in Arjunganj area as notified in 1977 (as extended from time to time). The court had asked the authorities how the encroachments were made in spite of the request of the defence authorities for not allowing the same. A division bench comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order on September 3 on a public interest litigation filed by Brigadier Tirbani Prashad in 2011, raising the issue of alleged encroachments on the army's firing range land in the city. "In spite of land having been earmarked for the firing range under Section 2 of the Maneouvres Field Firing and Artillery Practice Act, 1938, as informed by Dhruv Mathur, Amicus, the said land has been encroached upon by outsiders and the state authorities, including Lucknow Development Authority, have turned a blind eye to such encroachment and a deaf ear to the requests of the army personnel to intervene and not to allow such encroachments with the result that defence forces are not able to use the firing range for long range firing and their exercise is restricted to short range firing," the high court had observed. It was also informed that the notification for the firing range would be expiring in September 2025. The counsel for the Union of India said that there is a request for extension of the notification for the purposes of firing range. In compliance with the court's earlier order, the Union of India filed an affidavit stating, "Historically, the Army has exercised restraint by conducting only small arms firing and refrained from high-trajectory weapons usage or maneuver exercises. This was done in deference to the civilian population and with faith that the legal and administrative process would resolve the matter appropriately." "Unfortunately, this restraint is no longer sustainable. The requirement of evolved training is more pronounced than ever before, especially in the background of continued Op Sindoor. The Army is required to be prepared to carry out full-spectrum operations," it said. htc...