As roads in Cantonment open, locals say it with sweets

SECUNDERABAD: A day after four civilian roads in Secunderabad Cantonment were thrown open to the public in the night, residents distributed sweets to military personnel and vowed to fight until all the roads are made accessible to commuters.

“It is a great piece of news and we thank defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman for this. We have also given a letter to the Local Military Authority (LMA) stating that they must consider opening other important roads as well. We went to the state government and the ministry of defence (MoD) only to get the assurance that the matter will be taken care of soon,” Srinivasan, general secretary of United Federation of Residential Welfare Associations.

When residents first went to meet the ministry, they brought up the law, saying that the military should open roads if needed for the general public, while agreeing to security checks and other issues.

“I have been living in this area for a very long time and I remember that the Cantonments used to be very far away from the city. With the city expanding and the Cantonments coming close by, it has become an essential thing to keep the roads open for easy accessibility of the people around,” said Ramakanth, an activist for the cause. “These roads are like arterie. If we block them, the heart will fail. We are very thankful that some of the roads have finally been opened and hope that others will also open up soon,” he said.

Yamuna Pathak, a social activist, believes it’s a good initiative, stressing on the fact that lakhs of commuters cross the road everyday and opening of the roads would go a long way in helping them. “The blocking of these roads has caused a lot of problems when they were closed and opening them will greatly benefit people,” Pathak added.

The roads that have been opened have proved to be very helpful to the people as they are using it and it has helped them a lot too.