Residents of SCB want Murmu to intervene on road closure issue

Secunderabad: The demand for re-opening of closed roads has now reached Rashtrapati Bhavan, as few days are remaining for President Droupadi Murmu's Hyderabad visit as part of the annual Southern sojourn.

The residents of the north-eastern part of Secunderabad and daily commuters have sought her intervention in the road closure issue. A few took up the issue on social media and tagged the President.

A few locals of the North-Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad pointed out that for the past several years the residents were vexed with raising their voice against the road closure. They have tagged the Defence Minister, Director-General Defence Estates (DGDE), Defence Secretary, Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) officials, Telangana MA&UD minister and Principal Secretary, MAUD, urging re-opening of roads closed by the Local Military Authority (LMA) in violation of the Defence Ministry's order.

But no action has been taken till date. "We are hoping that as part of annual Southern sojourn President Murmu will be visiting the city from December 26 to 30 would take some decision on the road closure issue."

Chandar Shekar, secretary, Federation of North Eastern Colonies said, "for many years the residents of North Eastern colonies are struggling to ply travel on Secunderabad roads. In an attempt to raise our voice against official apathy, we have taken the support of social media platforms and tagged the President of India, as she is the Commander-in-chief of Indian Army. So we need her intervention in re-opening of roads which are illegally closed in the Golf Course area."

Rajashekar, another resident of North Eastern Colonies, pointed out that, "not only the roads that are closed; now and then without any notice LMA are restricting movement of civilians at various Cantonment roads. Hundreds of residents of northern and eastern parts of Secunderabad are suffering a lot due to road closure. It is high time President should intervene in the 21 road public closure issues and take a decision on re-opening of all roads. We also seek standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by MoD should be implemented in SCB."