Times of India: Hyderabad: Wednesday, November 29, 2017.
An RTI reply
has revealed that successive Chief Executive Officers of Secunderabad
Cantonment Board were aware that the closure of AOC road by the Army
authorities was done without following the rules but chose to remain silent
about the issue during board meetings.
A letter
written by former SCB CEO Sujata Gupta to ministry of defence shows that road
closure was being done against norms. According to S Chandrasekhar of India
Against Corruption Volunteers Association: "Residents have been quoting an
MoD letter which stated that as per Sec 258 of Cantonments Act 2005, only SCB
has the authority to close roads. Any road closed by Local Military Authority
has to be reopened immediately. However, both LMA and SCB have been saying the
letter does not apply in these cases because the closed roads are A1 military
roads."
But in all
SCB meetings, the CEOs were silent on the matter or made statements like
"the matter is under discussion between CM and Raksha Mantri".
Residents have
now obtained documentary information (through RTI) that the CEO was aware of
the applicability of Sec 258 to the closed roads in Nov 2014 itself. According
to the letter, the CEO says that if LMA keeps closing MES roads, civilian
pockets "may get land locked".
In the light
of this development, residents want to know why is the LMA is still holding on
to the line that Sec 258 is not applicable here.
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