Secunderabad Cantonment Board, Malla Reddy to meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi over road access

HYDERABAD: Representatives of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) are scheduled to meet Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi on May 4 to discuss certain long-pending issues such as closure of roads by Local Military Authority (LMA) in the Cantonment area over which there is growing public outrage.

They will be in the national capital to participate in a meeting of the representatives of 62 Cantonment Boards in the country which is being convened by Sitharaman. SCB vice-president J. Ramakrishna and Malkajgiri MP Ch.Malla Reddy will represent SCB at the meeting.

According to the SCB vice-president, the Local Military Authority (LMA) has implemented unilateral and arbitrary decisions of closing the Cantonment roads and without following the process of law and in violation of Section 258 of the Cantonments Act. "We will raise the closure of all important roads and other issues affecting the citizens," said Ramakrishna.

The Gough Road, Wellington Road, Mornington Road and Entrenchment Road are all maintained and repaired by Secunderabad Cantonment Board with the taxes collected from people. "Earlier too, we had written to the ministry of defence seeking a directive to the Local Military Authority to reopen the closed roads. We may raise the issue of non-payment of service charges by the ministry of defence and implementation of building regularisation bylaws," Ramakrishna added.

KTR FLAYS CENTRE

State municipal administration and urban development minister KT Rama Rao has lashed out at the central government once again, alleging that because of the defence ministry's adamant attitude, the state government is unable to construct expressways in the Secunderabad Cantonment area.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Kandlakoi interchange on Outer Ring Road in Medchal, he said that even though the state government offered to pay compensation four times the value of the land to the defence ministry, the latter was not willing. The state government needs about 100 acres of defence lands to build flyovers and skyways, and agreed to give 600 acres in Shamirpet in return but the defence authorities rejected the proposal. The defence ministry was demanding payment of Rs 30 crore per annum towards opportunity cost perennially, Rao said.

The state government has prepared project reports and designs of skyways from Jubilee Bus Station to Thumukunta and from Patny to Suchitra Junction in Kompally which are to cost Rs 2,500 crore. Government officials were making rounds of those who matter in Delhi seeking allocation of 100 acres of defence land for construction of skyways but to no avail, Rao said and requested the Malkajgiri MP to forcefully demand at the Delhi meeting handover of defence land. The state Government would also write a letter to the defence minister in this regard, Rama Rao added.