The Ministry of Defence (MoD) sent a letter to all four Army Commands about removing the civil areas of 31 cantonment boards. However, the Secunderabad Cantonment officials are confused because they haven’t received any information about merging the civil areas with GHMC.
According to SCB officials, there was only one meeting in February where a committee submitted a report on the matter. Since then, there has been no progress in Secunderabad Cantonment, while the other 30 Cantonments have made remarkable progress.
An anonymous senior officer of SCB mentioned that after the February meeting, there was no progress and no clarity from the Centre. They discussed the details shared by the MOD and the amount of land SCB owns, but there has been no response or further meetings scheduled.
The officer highlighted the confusion caused by the news of the MOD approving the merger without deciding on the specifics.
As per a notice, the principal directors of the four commands were required to submit a status report by January 1, 2024. However, there has been no significant progress in the merger process in Secunderabad Cantonment for the past ten months. While other boards have had multiple meetings and are now required to submit the state government’s opinion, no second meeting has been scheduled for SCB.
The board is unsure if a green signal has been given for the merger and if it has, they don’t know which Cantonment it applies to. The lack of progress since the February meeting has put them in a status quo situation.
