SCB conceals letter from Defence Ministry on closure of roads

It has come to light that the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) concealed a letter from the Principal Director Defence Estate (PDDE) directing the SCB to include it in the board meetings. The letter directed the Cantonment Board to reopen closed roads.

That the SCB received the letter was confirmed by SCB Vice-president Sada Keshava Reddy. He said, “Based on the SCB Presidents’ orders the SCB, CEO kept the letter aside.” The letter issued on January 7, 2015 stated that the roads closed by Local Military Authority (LMA) in any Cantonment across the country should be reopened. Subsequently, the roads in Mathura and Allahabad were reopened.

It may be noted that the elected members of SCB failed to pass a motion on the issue of closed roads as the President of the Cantonment Board said that the matter was not within the powers of the Cantonment board members.

S Chandrasekhar, coordinator, Open Secunderabad Cantonment All Roads (OSCAR) said, “The letter, which was referred by PDDE all over India and to the Southern Command to the CEOs of cantonments under their jurisdictions, carried an explicit and clear instruction to the CEO to table the MoD letter with a directive “ensuing board meeting” for noting.

The SCB received the letter but, did not table it in any of the meetings.” The SCB held seven board meetings in 2015 but the letter was not shared with the board members. Pankaj Sethi of OSCAR said, “The MoD letter referred to the opening of A1 lands that were closed without following Section 258 of Cantonments Act 2006, which stipulates for a discussion with the elected members of the respective cantonment.”

Further, he said, “The letter was never included in the minutes of the meeting and the elected board members were never given a chance to voice their opinion on closure of roads.” OSCAR team requested the SCB to include the reopening of roads in the next board meeting to be held on January 29.