Hyderabad: Five months after the last significant development in the Secunderabad Cantonment's excision process with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has scheduled a meeting with senior officials from the Telangana govt and Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) on Dec 4.
The upcoming meeting will be conducted virtually, involving various stakeholders such as the directorate general of defence estates (DGDE), local military authority (LMA), SCB, and representatives from the state govt.
The letters sent last week to various states still pending merger with municipal bodies, which were obtained by TOI, stated: "The view of the state govt on the broad modalities has not yet been received." In this context, the joint secretary (lands and works) of the Union defence department will meet with Telangana officials, including the chief secretary and the principal secretary of municipal administration & urban development.
Ahead of the meeting, a deputy director general in New Delhi requested an estate official in Pune to compile SCB's communications with the LMA and their responses.
Despite these developments, sources indicate the excision process may remain stalled due to the eight-member committee's lack of progress. Formed in Jan 2023, the eight-member committee includes two joint secretary-level officers from the MoD, the secretary of municipal administration, SCB president and CEO, and two senior Armed Forces officials. "The committee mandated to examine the finer details of the excision and submit a report has met only once and there has been little progress, particularly with the recent change in the state govt," sources said.
In the last meeting held in June, chief secretary Santhi Kumari, while assuring that the excision process would move forward, informed MoD officials that the state govt had not yet received any formal proposal from the ministry. "An in-house study was also conducted to assess the feasibility of transferring the land to the municipality, and it will be discussed by the excision committee," she said. Since then, no high-level meetings have been convened.
A source familiar with the issue highlighted that excision processes for 11 other cantonments also remain stalled after issuing draft notifications, with decisions pending in New Delhi. Meetings on the matter are expected to continue through late Nov and early Dec.