NEW DELHI: Military personnel and their families are up against the recent government decision to “reopen all closed roads” in the 62 cantonments across the country because they contend it has adversely impacted security.
Banners of protests are already being raised by “separated families (SF)”, which stay in the cantonments while their husbands are posted in “field” or forward areas. “We and our children have lost our sense of security. So have our husbands who used to carry out their duties at the borders without worrying about our safety till now,” said the wife of a Colonel posted on the Line of Control with Pakistan.
Added a Major’s wife, “The Army simply cannot provide guards to each SF cluster in the cantonments. Many of us have come together to write a letter to defence minister Nirmala
Sitharaman to strongly protest against the move.”
Many officers, too, said it was “a wrong decision” in the backdrop of terror attacks on military camps and bases over the last few years, ranging from the one on the
Pathankot air force station to the ones on the Army camps in Kashmir.
Uri and
Nagrota in September and November 2016. “Cantonments become vulnerable to such attacks if the entry is free for all,” said a Lt-Colonel.
The decision to reopen all close roads in the cantonments, which aims to ease civilian commuter traffic, was announced on May 20 after defence minister
Nirmala Sitharaman reviewed the matter with Army chief General
Bipin Rawat, defence secretary Sanjay Mitra and other officials. Sitharaman had earlier held discussions on the issue with members of
Parliament and elected vice-presidents of the 62 cantonment boards.
The Army headquarters on May 21 issued directives to all its formations around the country, stressing that “all barriers, check-posts and road blocks” should be removed in cantonments. “Vehicles will not be stopped or checked, and sentries dealing with civilians will be polite,” it said. The directives are to be reviewed after a month of monitoring the traffic on 87 roads and examining security concerns in the cantonments.