Secunderabad Cantonment polls deferred; political parties' hopes dashed

Secunderabad: With the Ministry of Defence (MoD) issuing a gazette notification on Friday that the upcoming Cantonment Board election, scheduled on April 30, is rescinded, the development of Cantonment hangs in balance. It has been two years since the tenure of the eight ward members and vice president has been completed.

Releasing a communication in Delhi, Joint Secretary, Defence Ministry Rakesh Mittal, said the Central government hereby rescinds the MoD's gazette notification issued on February 17, which stated that ordinary elections to the 57 Cantonment Boards (including Secunderabad Cantonment) would be held on April 30.

The SCB officials have been was busy preparing the final electoral rolls. All major political parties have been busy making plans on finalising the list of winning aspirants in the wards; the announcement crushed all hopes. Meanwhile, the announcement of cancellation of election has elicited mixed views among the locals. A few residents are hoping that the merger of civilian areas of SCB with the GHMC would be taken up on fast track. A few groups of locals have shown displeasure over the cancellation of the Cantonment elections. Activists of a few parties staged a dharna.

"With the notification, all our hopes are crushed. For the past several years no development has taken place in all spheres; no proper town planning, no proper construction permission; roads are narrow; there are no proper health centres; there is no proper infrastructure; sanitation in SCB is worst. For the past two years the board is without a public representatives; we were hoping that with the notification of Cantonment election, very soon SCB would get a facelift, but all hopes are crushed," said Srinivas, resident of SCB.

Maheshwar Reddy, former vice-president of SCB, said, "the Central government is least bothered about the Cantonment growth. In 2019 also MoD cancelled the election;again this year they have done the same. Yet Rs 700-crore service charges are still pending from the MoD, due to which several development works have not been taken up. Even no decision has been taken on merging the civilian areas of the Cantonment with the GHMC. It appears that the Government of India lacks clarity on how to address the problem in the Cantonment areas."

Meanwhile, an SCB-based non-governmental organisation, Cantonment Vikas Manch, which has been fighting the SCB-GHMC merger issue and opposing the MoD's sudden decision on the polls, had approached the HC recently filing a writ petition urging it not to postpone the polls.

"The SCB-GHMC merger process is almost in its final stage, but is halted due to the MoD's gazette notification on the poll. We strongly oppose it," said secretary of Cantonment Vikas Manch S Ravinder.

"The election imbroglio has been created due to lack of coordination between MOD and its two arms- Army & DGDE. Having announced the policy of merger of Cantonments with the nearest municipality, the administration should complete that process as soon as possible. Conflicting orders cause discontent in public," said Jeetendra Surana, secretary, All Cantonments Citizens Welfare Association. When asked, Madhukar Naik, SCB CEO, said the board was not aware of the reason for the cancellation of the election and also whether the merger takes place or not.