Accepting a long-pending demand of the Telangana government, the Union defence ministry on Wednesday announced separation of civilian areas from the Secunderabad Cantonment and their merger with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation,

“The committee is constituted to look into the details of proposed modalities for excision ie; land and immovable assets, cantonment employees and pensioners, cantonment funds, civic services, movable properties and stores, road management and traffic, records etc and submit its report,” said an official communication from the defence ministry dated January 4.

The committee will comprise joint secretary (finance), who will act as chairman of the committee, along with joint secretary (lands and works) of MoD, additional director general (Cantonments), director general defence estates (DGD), additional DG (land, works and environment), from the Army headquarters in Delhi, secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) from Telangana, director of Defence Estates (Southern Command, Pune, since SCB falls under this command) and president of the Cantonment Board as members.

The chief executive officer of Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) will be the member secretary of the committee. With one of the densest civilian populations, of close to five lakh people spread over about 40.17 sq km, the Secunderabad cantonment is the second-largest in the country. A merger of its civilian localities with the adjoining municipal corporation has been a long-standing demand. With rapid growth in the rest of the Telangana capital, the civilian residents of the cantonment have feared they would be left behind.

Military stations span across nearly 5,400 of the 9,800 acres under the cantonment, and the rest are already developed colonies, slums and private lands. Rasoolpura, one of India’s largest slums and just a few kilometres from the chief minister’s office, is under the cantonment board.

The committee’s constitution comes a week after chief secretary Somesh Kumar called on defence secretary A Giridhar in New Delhi to request the transfer of defence land for the state government to widen the roads and construct elevated corridors. On December 14, the state government conveyed its in-principle concurrence and “no-objection” to the excision and the cantonment board’s merger with adjoining municipalities.

MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday said that the move will help the Telangana government to expedite infra projects.

Taking to Twitter, the minister said: “We have been demanding the merger of Secunderabad Cantonment into GHMC for a long time. This will help the Telangana Govt in taking forward SRDP & other infra projects expeditiously. It is the Union Govt’s adamant refusal to part with land that held up proposed skyways for over 7 yrs (sic).”

TRS leader Krishank Manne said “The merger will contribute to numerous development activities in the Cantonment area. Around 30,000 residents living in the slum areas of Cantonment have lost their voting rights owing to the Cantonment laws. This merger will resolve this issue and will help them to gain their voice.” “The housing laws for the Cantonment are also very difficult as they have to attend a number of board meetings to get permissions for constructing houses which are more than 75 sq.yards,” he added.

Image source: Hindustan Times