HYDERABAD: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), in a reply to a query filed under the RTI, stated that the construction of a function hall in Padam Singh Farm in West Marredpally was unauthorised. It said that notices indicating the violation of Sections 239 and 248 of the Cantonment Act of 2006 had been issued to the AOC Regimental Association in August 2015.
Residents of the Cantonment were disappointed that the SCB had not divulged any information about the building plans of said construction and the numerous complaints received regarding the violation of rules.
Unauthorised constructions were carried out in Padam Singh Farm, in Survey Numbers 40 and 41, as part of which a function hall, a guest room, a gallery, a kitchen, a storeroom, verandahs, and toilets were built by the AOC Regimental Association.
Then chief executive officer Sujatha Gupta had stated in a notice that the action of the association constituted an offence under Section 248 of the Cantonment Act as the construction had been carried out without approval from the Board. She had added that the AOC Regimental Association was being given 30 days to remove the illegal structures.
After receiving the notice, the association had submitted a building plan and applied for regularisation.
Mr S. Keshava Reddy from Ward 2, who was the vice-president of the board at the time, said the issue had been discussed in board meetings but no official clearance had been issued. He opposed the regularisation of the structure saying that the illegal structures of several common citizens had been razed in demolition drives conducted by the SCB simply because they had not been given the chance to seek regularisation of their buildings.
Mr N. Venkataramana, who filed the RTI query, criticised the SCB for not mending its ways despite having being pulled up by the Chief Information Commis-sioner in the past for not responding to RTI queries promptly.
Mr C. Sankaran, a member of India Against Corruption, said that they would take up the issue.
“The public was not spared by the previous CEO; their structures were razed. But she kept mum and did not take any action against the unauthorised construction. Even if they applied for regularisation, it is not permissible. There is no provision to regularise unauthorised buildings,” he said.
