Centre ends 'archaic colonial era' cantonments, Himachal's YoI first to go

Sixty-two cantonments across the nation will cease to exist and be classified as military stations, while those housing civilians will fall under local municipalities, said a Times of India report.

Yol in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district is the first to shed its cantonment tag.

According to the report, the cantonment's military area will be converted into a military station, and the civil area will merge with the municipality. Employees and assets of the Cantonment Board will also be taken over by the neighbouring municipalities.

This is a significant departure from the "archaic colonial practice of creating cantonments," said officials.

On being asked how this will help everyone, officials said that contrary to popular belief, the move will prove beneficial to all alike.

"Citizens who were unable to access state government welfare schemes through the municipality, will now be able to do so. As far as the Army is concerned, it too can now focus on the construction of the military station,” sources said.

The Nasirabad Cantonment in Rajasthan is next in the line after Yol, the report added.

Asked how long it would take, they said cantonments where ever the demarcation is easy it will be done quickly while others will take place on time.

There were 56 cantonments at the time of Independence and six more were notified after 1947, with the final one being Ajmer in 1962.

According to records maintained by the Defence Estates Offices, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) owns about 17.99 lakh acres, making it the largest landowner in the country.

Of this, approximately 1.61 lakh acres are held within the 62 notified cantonments. The remaining land, around 16.38 lakh acres, is spread across the country and outside of the cantonments.

Affairs related to the cantonments, including the construction of new buildings, height of buildings, commercial conversion, sewage and the rest were all controlled by the Cantonment Board.

The sources said that excision has happened earlier in Ambala and Agra, while cantonments such as Dharamshala, Sitapur, among others, were de-notified before 1947.

Cantonments are deemed municipalities and running municipalities is a state subject, sources said.

"Civilian residents of cantonments are not benefited from state welfare schemes since cantonments are governed by Cantonment Boards through the Defence Estates Department of the MoD," they said.

Hence, there is a popular demand from civilian residents as well as states for the excision of cantonments, they added.

The sources further said that a significant portion of the Defence Budget is used for the development of civil areas of cantonments.

“Also, due to the ever-increasing expansion of civil areas of cantonments, there is pressure on A1 defence land. Cantonments are colonial phenomena and military stations are better administered,” another source said.

(With agency input)