HYDERABAD: In a major respite to the residents of Secunderabad Cantonment after years of tussle with the Local Military Authority (LMA), all the cantonment roads, except four roads, were reopened from the early hours of Tuesday. This comes after the Ministry of Defence (MoD), on Sunday, ordered the LMA to remove road blocks from all arterial roads in the Secunderabad Cantonment area.
This comes a day after roads continued to remain close despite a notice released by the MoD to reopen all of them. The roads were open for vehicular movement from 6 am, according to the Ministry orders, by the LMA. Bringing relief to lakhs of locals in areas like Bollarum, Yapral, Sainikpuri and other areas, the security barricades which, otherwise, were removed to pave way for commuting.
In total, barriers were removed from 11 places inside the cantonment to ensure the free-flow of traffic. However, under AOC limits, barricades continued to prevail at four roads. The locals hoped that these roads would also be reopened by the LMA. “We hope that the remaining four roads would also be reopened,” said J Rama Krishna, Vice-President. As elected members, even we suffered due to closure of roads, however, we have been successful now in the light of reopening of the roads after giving multiple representations to MoD, he added. In a recent meeting convened by the MoD with Members of Parliament and elected Vice-Presidents of all 62 Cantonment Boards on May 4 on the issues relating to cantonments, a detailed review was undertaken, in particular, those relating to the closure of roads.
The first step to solve the crisis was to reopen all road closures immediately in all 62 cantonments in the country. The issue of closure of individual roads was reviewed - de novo which means ‘in conformity’ with the provisions as laid down. And, any further closure of roads would be undertaken only after following such procedures.A simplified detailed SOP will shortly be issued to jointly address the needs of the local public and the military establishment.
Local welfare associations, meanwhile, expressed happiness over the reopening of the roads. “We are thankful to Nirmala Sitharaman and Major General N Srinivasa Rao for implementing the decision that brings great relief to lakhs of civilians,” said CS Chandra Shekar, Federation of Northeastern Colonies of Secunderabad (FNCS). He extended his greetings to the Vice-Presidents for patiently listening to the outraged citizens on numerous occasions, for understanding their issues, and for solving them, he added.