Secunderabad Cantonment Board to ask Telangana government for more funds soon

HYDERABAD: Responding to Deputy Director of Ministry of Defense (MoD) Rajesh Kumar Shah’s tweet on state government’s devolving funds for development works at cantonment boards across the country, vice-president of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), J Rama Krishna, said, “The Centre is now requesting the State governments to consider cantonment board as Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and provide them with funds. However, the Telangana government had already done this long back.

The SCB has been getting funds from the State Finance Commission for the past two years, due to which the board could sustain itself even at the time of fund crunch.”

He also added that the board was planning to request the State government for more funds soon.

Kumar had, in a tweet on Sunday, said that the government of Telangana, along with Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Punjab, are soon going to devolve funds at their cantonment boards for development works in the area.

The move comes just days after MP Grish Bhapat raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also urged State governments to devolve funds to their respective cantonments, following Bhapat’s request.