Social media campaigns begin to open Secunderabad Cantonment Board roads

A core team of about 51 persons from various areas in SCB have started the Facebook page “OSCAR — Open Secund-erabad Cantonment Roads”.

The committee plans to organise a lunch and invite former Army personnel residing in SCB areas to get their support on the issue and have decided to conduct a 5K run in January along the closed routes for the same.

The committee has also started a WhatsApp group for the core committee members along with the president and secretaries of resident welfare associations in SCB and have started an online petition on the issue, which has already got 20,000 signatures.

The petition will be taken to the President, the Prime Minister and the defence minister once the target of 50,000 signatures is reached.

An email format has also been drafted and people are sending it to local politicians and the CM, asking for funds to fight it out legally with the Army on the issue.

Mr S. Chandrasekhar, convener of the OSCAR core committee said, “I am sure everyone who has suffered due to road closures and will suffer once Gough Road is closed will join our online campaign and make it successful. We will also start a website soon on this issue.”

The main issue raised by the residents is that in the closing of SCB roads, the local military authority did not follow the procedures laid down under Section 258 of The Cantonments Act, 2006 which mentions that no street shall be closed for reasons other than security and without giving a public notice inviting objections and suggestions from the public.

Mr Chandrasekhar said, “The Allahabad High Court recently passed a landmark judgment that the Army cannot just shut down a road citing security reasons and has to follow procedures set under Section 258.”