What will happen to North Eastern Areas of the Secunderabad Cantonment if the roads are closed without alternative roads to them?

As you know, OSCAR ( Open Secunderabad Cantonment Area All Roads) community is fighting for the rights of the state government to not to waste the expenses/funds on the roads in the AOC rea and also protecting the citizens for the “right of way” on these Secunderabad Cantonment roads, which is used by the peace loving people of twin cities from times immemorial. The whole issue is made out to be a game plan of LMA to cut off the East/West with the restrictions as it is already done illegally. The issue state government should ponder over is with cascading affect due to closure is as follows sir. The matter must be taken up with MOD officials and the COAS as well.

The adamant attitude of the LMA in Secunderabad Cantonment, without any rhyme and reasons, who have illegally closed 12 roads (that too without following section 258 of the Cantonment Act 2006) and now a freshly, bent upon getting ready for closing 4 more roads must be taken up by the state govt seriously with strong objections with MOD for the fraud committed by the LMA officials such as PCB/Col Q and the CEO in tandem with other nominated members of the LMA by not following the SOP ( under Sec 258 of the said act) and the MOD letter dated 7th Jan 2015. This is nothing but cheating the state government and bullying tactics of the LMA by playing mind game of security threat. The security threat must be assed with security audit of the MOD immediately.

Having closed 12 roads as per the below mentioned details and in the event of the closing few more roads, it will have cascading effect in the North and East and West of Secunderabad areas with South of the city. Looking at the present situation, the citizens are suffering as follows:

1. The golf course / RSI Club area to the North and East of Rashtrapathi Nilayam extends for a distance of almost 3 km, from Hakimpet to the Lothkunta – Sainikpuri road. 10 roads in this area have been closed by the army authorities without following sec 258. A list of these roads are likely affect 10 lakhs plus citizens in these areas.

2. All these roads were in use by civilians since time immemorial even as per the CEO and DEOs counter affidavits in the earlier PILs. They were the main thorough fares used to connect areas to the east of the cantonment – such as Yapral, Balaji Nagar, Kowkoor, with the regions to the west – such as Bolarum, Alwal, Medchal Road, Rajiv Rajhadari etc. Public transport including RTC buses and shared autos were running on these roads. Now it is totally cut off causing the agony to the citizens.

3. The residents of the areas to the east of the cantonment, such as Yapral, Balaji Nagar etc., used these roads to reach schools and colleges such as St Anns Bolarum, Loyola Academy etc., on the western side, and also to reach the main city to the South by joining the Rajiv Rahadhari with easy accesses earlier. These roads provided access to the residents of the eastern areas to the important Lakdawala Junction Bus Stop near Ayyappa Temple on Rajiv Rahadari. This is a very important bus stop because RTC buses, (a cheaper transportation) are available to all parts of the city from here. These same roads allowed access to Rythu Bazar Alwal and the other bazars such as Bolarum Bazar, Pioneer Bazar, Doveton Bazar, Risala Bazar located in the Macha Bolarum, Bolarum and Alwal localities. Since these eastern areas fall under Alwal Circle of GHMC, residents have frequent need to access GHMC Circle office Alwal, Govt. Hospital Alwal, etc., all of which were easily reachable through the roads which are now closed. Even for RTA related works these residents need to go to RTA Medchal office (which has jurisdiction over these areas). All this access roads are now totally cut off.

4. Similarly, these roads were used by areas to the west of the cantonment to send children to schools such as Valerian Grammar School, Indus School, Bahratiya Vidya Bhawan, etc., which are located to the east side of these areas. Residents of the western areas also used these roads to commute to work places in and around ECIL, Cherlapally, Moula Ali and Nacharam Industrial Areas. From a 10 minute walk / 5 minute bicycle ride from Bolarum to Valerian Grammar School, today it takes more than an hour by bus since residents first have to take a bus from Bolarum to Lothkunta, or Lal Bazar, then a bus from there to Yapral, and finally a 1 km walk to Valerian School from Yapral water tank. A distance of 1 km has no exploded into a circuitous journey of 8-10 km. This may get aggravated if the Gough is also closed.

5. Closure of these roads, and specially of the Lakdawala – Balaji Nagar road, has also closed all connectivity between Radial Road 14 (Rajiv Rahadari), and peripheral areas.

6. Maps of as far back as 1919 show these roads as “Main Roads”. They have always been open to the public. These maps even show octroi check post near the golf course where several roads from the eastern areas converged and carried on to the bazars to the west of the Karimnagar Road –( which now gateway to Telangana) clearly showing that these are public nature of these roads.

7. Interestingly, the documents are available from 1920s and later which show that several properties in this area were acquired by the British, and later the Central Government from either private citizens or the State Government. For example, Rastrapathi Nilayam premises were acquired by the Central Govt from the State Govt in the 1950s.

8. Bungalow No 47, which now houses the 54 Div Commander's residence, was acquired by the British from a Jagirdar named Raja Dhanrajgir in the 1920s, for the purpose of providing a residence for the then GOC.

9. There are still private properties to the south of the Lakdawala – Balaji Nagar road, such as in Survey No 219, etc. If the properties were private or state government owned at that time, the roads outside these properties would necessarily have been public roads at that time. When and how did these get converted to internal military roads, as claimed by the LMA? If so, let them come out clean with necessary documents and proof to be submitted to state government.

Civilians of Alwal Circle (which includes, Yapral, Balaji Nagar, Kowkoor and Macha Bolarum) come under the jurisdiction of GHMC. Residents of Yapral had filed PIL62/2014, which was decided along with 1 other PIL and 3 other Writ Petitions by the Hon'ble High Court through a Common Order on 26.09.2014. In this Common Order GHMC and LMA were asked to look into alternative roads. 4 of the 9 roads listed in Para 60 of the HC judgment, 4 are in the golf course area. While GHMC is looking into alternative roads for the Malkajgiri area, why is the Hyderabad HC order to provide alternative roads not being implemented for the northern areas, which were also party to the cases? The existing road from Kowkoor to Ammuguda and onward to Lothkunta can never be a viable alternative because it involved detours of as much as 8 km for distances which were earlier hardly 800 m; also the 9th road listed in Para 60 of the Hyderabad HC judgment is precisely this access – and if that road is closed by LMA then the eastern areas will become a marooned island.

A cursory study of the geography of the area will however lead to the inevitable conclusion that if viable alternate roads are to be provided, the only way to do it is to make these alternate roads through the defence land. The obvious conclusion therefore is that the immediate, least costly and most effective solution is to reopen the closed roads.

Notwithstanding, if at all any alternative is suppose to be workable, the totally closed flyover from Balaji Nagar to Lakdawala gate with few exit/entry points in-between for those who are in-between these roads for better connectivity. We cannot cut off these roads since the East and West corridors will be worst sufferers.

These alternative proposal must be agreeable to the adamant LMA/CEO of the SCB since it is their demand to close these roads and not the state proposal. However, the cost may be enormous to build such totally closed flyover, by addressing the security concerns of the LMA and to take care the security threat, the LMA perceive to be. But since it the security threat to the LMA, though the SCB board must take a decision to close or open any roads, it is even due to security reasons as a issue, the section 258 of the Cantonment act must be followed in letter and spirit to respect law of the land. Since it is more to fulfill the whims and fancies of the LMA, the total cost must be funded by LMA from Defense budget ( even for the alternative roads due to closure of the Gough roads) and not from the state funds since it is waste of expenses to satisfy the LMA demands and LMA should buy peace from the angry citizens for such acts.

OSCAR is sure that state government, quickly through the Principle Secretary/Special Chief Secretary, Ministry Urban Development and Collector of Hyderabad Dist must shoot out a letter by raising the objections for the LMA illegal acts and bullying the state govt with such false information of security threat. If at all the security threat is true, did the LMA, officially inform the DGP of the state? Looking at the so casual attitude of the LMA, the whole issue of the security threat is played out by the LMA to blackmail the state govt psyche. This must be exposed immediately.

List of roads in the golf course area have been closed by military authorities to civilians ((Note the names of these roads are frequently changed by military authorities – hence the descriptions of these roads are also given):

1. Puri Singh Marg. This is the road from Valerian Grammar School on Yapral Road to Cariappa Road, via Navy House

2. Gen Krishna Rao Marg from Hakimpet/Bolarum Checkpost to Bison Dwar at the junction of Cariappa Road and Lothkunta-Ammuguda Road, via Cantonment Telephone Exchange, BEPTA Golf Course, RSI Club Front Gate, EME Centre House

3. Surender Marg from Eagle Chowk to Sundial Park, via Army School, Batticaloa Canteen, RSI Club Rear Gate

4. Cariappa Road from Bison Dwar to Rajiv Rahadari near St Ann’s School Bolarum, via Rashtrapathi Nilayam Gate No 3, Synergy Plaza/Bison Chowk

5. The road from Cantonment Telephone Exchange to Synergy Plaza/Bison Chowk via Holy Trinity Church

6. The road from BEPTA Golf Course to Lakdawala Junction on Rajiv Rahadari

7. The road from BEPTA Golf Course to Balaji Nagar

8. The road from Navy House Circle at the junction of Puri Singh Marg and Gen Krishna Rao Marg to Andhra Sub Area Circle near Rashtrapathi Nilayam Gate No 1, via Gen Krishna Rao Marg, RSI Club Front Gate, Rashtrapathi Nilayam Gate No. 3

The following road is open at present, but is included in the list of 9 roads permitted to be closed by the Hyderabad HC judgment of 26.09.2014 is the road from Andhra Sub Area Circle near Rashtrapathi Nilayam Gate No 1 to Sainikpuri, via Ammuguda, College of Defence Management and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

The following road is open at present, but LMA have started putting barriers illegaly and turning away the vehicles based on their whims and fancies. It may be noted that this road, in its entirety, is almost 3 km long, that is the road from Bison Dwar to Kendriya Vidyalaya Trimulgherry via Cavalry Barracks, Guruvayurappan Temple, EME Gurudwara, MCEME Auditorium, Water Tank near Roberts Road