SCB meeting put off; residents furious

SCB meeting put off; residents furious
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Highlights

The meeting of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) that was scheduled to be held on Friday was postponed which left many activists fuming. They felt that this was the last straw on solving the deadlock on Gough Road closure.

Army Roads closure deadlock

Hyderabad: The meeting of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) that was scheduled to be held on Friday was postponed which left many activists fuming. They felt that this was the last straw on solving the deadlock on Gough Road closure.

The eight ward members of SCB were eagerly waiting to pass a resolution for the postponement of the Gough Road closure slated for December 1, 2015. Resident Welfare Associations, MPs, Malkajgiri MLA and even the Chief Minister’s efforts to convince the Defence Ministry to defer the date of closure of the road seems to have failed.

The Chief Minister’s efforts for a meeting with the Defence Minister for the past two months proved futile. The Local Military Authority put up public notice boards a few days ago that Gough Road connecting AOC to Ramakrishnapuram would be closed to civilians from December 1.

B T Srinivasan, general secretary, United Federation of Residents Welfare Associations (UFERWAS), questions the postponement of the meeting, “How can a meeting be postponed without prior notice? The voice of the elected ward members needs to be heard.”

SCB member Ramakrishna says, “According to Section 258 of Cantonment Act 2006, any road in Cantonment area can be closed only after a resolution is passed by the board members. In Secunderabad Cantonment, the Local Army Authority is taking decisions unilaterally.” The closure of Gough Road was deferred last year but time restriction was imposed on the condition that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) would prepare an alternate road plan but the proposal remained only on paper. Army officials claimed that they did not receive any information not did any official from the civic body met them. This however, is refuted by GHMC officials. A senior official of GHMC said that 12 letters were written but there was no response from AOC.

If Gough Road is closed permanently, residents of Ramakrishnapuram, Malkajgiri, Neredmet, A S Rao Nagar, ECIL and beyond would have to take a detour and take the Kharkhana road. According to estimates around 50,000 vehicles use Gough Road every day.

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