HYDERABAD: Municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao urged defence minister Rajnath Singh to instruct the local military authority (LMA) to immediately open all the roads in Secunderabad Cantonment and stop it from taking unilateral and arbitrary decisions on closure of public roads without following the due procedure.
KTR said closure of public roads by the LMA was affecting millions of citizens daily, especially those residing in north and northeastern parts of Hyderabad. “In an arbitrary and unauthorised manner, the local authorities are frequently resorting to the closure of these roads, resulting in untold misery to large sections of people as they have to take detours to commute daily,” he said in a letter sent to Rajnath on Thursday.
The minister had written letters on the issue earlier also seeking intervention of the Union minister in resolving the issue. In his July 2020 letter, he said the LMA had shut down four important roads - Allahabad Gate Road, Gough Road, Wellington Road and Ordnance Road — citing a surge in Covid-19 cases. “The roads are closed often for reasons bordering on frivolity. The state had taken up all required necessary measures to contain Covid-19, including lockdown imposed in May and June 2021, and seeing improvement, the lockdown was eased. Surprisingly, roads are now closed for the same Covid-19 reasons,” KTR said.
The minister said no public roads can be closed by the LMA or any authority other than SCB that too without following the procedure under section 258 of the Cantonment Act, 2006.
Blatantly defying all standard operating procedures, guidelines and instructions of the ministry of defence, the LMA continued closure of roads.
“In fact, the LMA has added more roads to such closures. The LMA is almost disobeying and neglecting its own SOP and guidelines,” KTR said. He recalled that the MoD in September 2018 had reviewed the matter of closure of roads and insisted on the absolute necessity to follow the procedure prescribed under section 258 of the Cantonment Act and directed that no public road in the Cantonment should be closed by the LMA.
