Cantonment residents welcome KTR’s tough stand

Hyderabad: The battle for the rights of the people of the Secunderabad Cantonment, demanding better facilities and access to public roads, went a notch higher on Saturday with IT Minister KT Rama Rao’s ultimatum to the Local Military Authority. Rao’s statement, that power and water supply would be cut to Defence areas in Cantonment limits […]

Hyderabad: The battle for the rights of the people of the Secunderabad Cantonment, demanding better facilities and access to public roads, went a notch higher on Saturday with IT Minister KT Rama Rao’s ultimatum to the Local Military Authority.

Rao’s statement, that power and water supply would be cut to Defence areas in Cantonment limits in the city if the LMA continued to cause inconvenience to residents by blocking roads and opposing development works, was welcomed by the residents of the Cantonment, who pointed out that the LMA was blatantly disobeying orders from the Army Headquarters apart from not following the operation procedures listed out by the Defence Minister.

“We are happy to see the State government take a tough stand against the LMA who have not obeyed their own Army Headquarters orders and the SOP of the Raksha Mantri,” said CS Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad. “They have been inconveniencing civilians for years now. Three municipalities – Kapra, Alwal and Malkajgiri – and five out of eight wards of SCB are badly affected due to their illegal acts like closure of 21 public roads, and five walls built blocking roads,” he said. “Though orders were issued by the Army headquarters asking them to reopen the roads and that this needs to be implemented ASAP, they have not done it. The only way is to act tough against LMA,” he added.

“Time to call out the hegemony of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board and the Defence Ministry on States and Corporations everywhere,” responded a Twitter user P Venkat Gandhi to the Minister’s statement in the Assembly. “They are negligent about our basic amenities, then we shall be stoic too. They have problem with giving us access, then we will have problem having them access our roads too. With all respect, chocking a part of city & civilians is crime!” (sic) tweeted another Twitter user Akhilesh Singi.

Some pointed out how union Minister of State Ajay Bhatt had stated in the Lok Sabha last year that only two roads in the SCB limits were closed, even when fact was that there were over 20 roads still off limits for the public. There were even roads that were not under the LMA but still closed, like the service road under the RK Puram flyover. This approach of lying and continuing to put civilians to inconvenience had to be taken head on, they said.

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