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‘A new Act is needed’

Virender Kashyap, MP, Lok Sabha, Shimla, shared his views on this significant issue as four major cantonment towns — Kasauli, Dagshai, Subathu and Jutogh — lie in his parliamentary constituency.

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Virender Kashyap, MP, Lok Sabha, Shimla, shared his views on this significant issue as four major cantonment towns — Kasauli, Dagshai, Subathu and Jutogh — lie in his parliamentary constituency. Residents of these towns have been seeking a permanent solution to a plethora of problems being faced by them and he feels amending the Cantonment Act, 2006, and abolishing the cantonments alone can help in providing a lasting solution. Excerpts from the interview:

Why do you think cantonment boards should be abolished?

Keeping in view the democratic traditions of our country, a new Act should be enacted in the Parliament to give primacy to the elected representatives over the military establishment.  At present, the military authorities have an edge over the elected representatives that cause repeated conflicts between them. It has been noticed many times that military authorities have little or no time to address the problems and grievances of the civil population, which leads to social unrest from time to time besides depriving the civil liberty rights to the local population enshrined in the constitution.

What are the key problems plaguing civilians in the cantonment boards?

Various Central and state-sponsored welfare and developmental schemes are not implemented in the cantonments on a priority and they are generally ignored by the defence authorities. It is unfair to deny civilians residing in the cantonments the benefit of these government schemes. The rates of house tax, water tax etc. in cantonment boards is not on a par with the civil population residing in the municipal committees and nagar panchayats and they pay higher taxes vis-à-vis their counterparts in the urban civic bodies. The honorarium of the elected representatives of the cantonment boards is also lower than the elected representatives of municipal committees and nagar panchayats. 

How can the problems of civilians in the cantonment boards be solved?

The cantonment board areas should be developed as smart cities by drafting master plans and providing sufficient budgetary provision for putting in place modern amenities and facilities to residents. The Director General Defence Estate should convene annual meetings of elected representatives of all 62 cantonment boards to sort out the grievances and other issues and ensure maximum coordination and cooperation among the elected representatives and military authorities. This will avoid delays that give birth to unrest among the civil population. The building bylaws in the cantonment areas should be on a par with the municipal committees and other elected civil bodies. Attractive housing schemes and development of new markets in the cantonment board areas for facilitating civil population should be undertaken. Lease rates applicable in cantonment areas should be reduced. 

Don’t you think cantonments will lose their old world charm if these boards are abolished?

The basic question here is to ease the problems of civilians residing in the cantonments and efforts should be made to liberate them from the clutches of the military authorities by undertaking fresh demarcation of  boundaries of cantonment boards. The aim is to bring more population under the jurisdiction of the civil administration. As an alternative, the area covered by civil population in CBs should be transferred to local administration and in lieu, equivalent amount of government land in that area should be provided to the defence authorities to meet their land needs.

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