Hyderabad: Elected ward members of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board will move a motion against the closure of Gough Road in the board meeting to be held on Friday. Ward 5 member J. Ramakrishna said that the Union ministry of defence had issued a letter in January asking the local military authorities to comply with Section 258 of the Cantonment Act 2006.
“The section says in case a road has to be closed in the Cantonment Board, it has to be discussed by the Board and an appropriate decision has to be arrived at. The Army has not done so, and the elected members will move a motion so that a detailed discussion can be taken up,” Mr Ramakrishna said.
He said that keeping in mind the Army’s concerns, “We will ask them to remove all restrictions and open the roads till the alternative roads are constructed.” S. Chandrasekhar, a resident of Trimulgherry, said that the local military authority had put public notice boards without referring to the MoD letter No 4(2).
“The very origin of the letter came from a court order, which was obtained by the local military authority, without following the provisions of Section 258 of the Cantonment Act 2006,” he said. “Why is the military authority in a hurry, that too just few days before the SCB Board meeting that is to take place, to consider the issue,” Mr Chandrasekhar asked.
In early 2014, local military authorities had closed seven roads in the Yapral-Bolarum area of the Secunderabad Cantonment. They had also announced that they would close six more roads in the AOC circle area.
“Despite the MoD letter to re-open all closed road, the local military authority did not reopen any of the roads (such as the Yapral-Bolarum roads), or remove restrictions during night hours (such as on the AOC roads). In fact they announced that they would close Gough Road (from Military Hospital to AOC circle) with effect from December 1, 2015,” Mr Chandrasekhar added.
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