In a significant development, the Centre has issued comprehensive guidelines for the excision of civil areas from Cantonments nationwide, including Hyderabad. The directives were formulated following a meeting chaired by Union Defence Secretary A. Giridhar.
Under these guidelines, proprietary rights over assets designated for civic amenities and municipal services in the excised areas will be transferred to state governments or state municipalities without any cost. This encompasses both the transfer of assets and liabilities of the Cantonment Boards to the state municipality, specifically the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in this case. Additionally, municipal oversight of leased or old grant properties within the excised area will shift to the municipality.
Discussions during the meeting underscored that the transfer of proprietary rights over Cantonment Board assets intended for municipal services and civic amenities will be at no cost to the municipality or local body. The territorial jurisdiction of the State Municipality will extend over the entire civil areas of the Cantonments, excluding Military stations. However, the Centre will retain title rights over the land it owns.
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The guidelines further specify that local municipal laws will apply to the transferred civil areas, enabling the state municipality to levy local taxes and fees. Priority will be given to the security concerns of the Armed Forces, particularly concerning privately held lands such as agricultural leases near Military stations. These cases will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy played a pivotal role in advancing the long-pending merger of civil areas of the Cantonment Board with GHMC, persistently pursuing the matter with the Defence Minister during each of his visits to Delhi. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Telangana on March 5, the Chief Minister also appealed for resolution of the issue.
The Cantonment Vikas Manch expressed gratitude to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Secunderabad Cantonment MLA Sri Ganesh, and Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane for their efforts in realizing the merger.
Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari affirmed that the Telangana government has already responded to the Union government’s proposal for excising civil areas of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board and merging them with GHMC, emphasizing the state government’s eagerness to expedite the process.
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