Solan, August 4
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has constituted a seven-member committee headed by Joint Secretary to work out the modalities of excising civilian areas in six cantonment towns of Himachal Pradesh.
The committee, constituted on July 31, is supposed to submit its report to the ministry within a week, according to the directions issued by the ministry.
The excising exercise is underway at Kasauli, Dagshai, Subathu, Jutogh, Bakloh and Dalhousie cantonments in the state where the civilian area are proposed to be merged in the nearby civic bodies or panchayats.
Additional Secretary, Urban Development, of the state government has been directed to work out the modalities for the excision of civil area which include issues like transfer of land and immovable assets, cantonment board employees, pensioners, cantonment funds, civic services, movable properties, stores, records, etc.
The committee will also have a representative of the state government as its member besides Additional Director General (ADG) (Land Work and Environment) from the army headquarter, ADG, Director General Defence Estate, Director, Defence Estate, Western Command, Chandigarh, president of the cantonment board as well as its Chief Executive Officer of the concerned board as its other members according to the letter.
The committee will elicit views of all concerned to finalise the proposed exercise. Once excluded, the benefits of various state government schemes will be available to these residents. Basic problems like repair of roads, upgrade of civic amenities like water, sewerage, etc. in civilian areas would be dealt with by the state government agencies.
The most popular town of Kasauli recorded a growth rate of mere 13.79 per cent. A majority of these towns have recorded low growth rate ranging from -8.99 to 27.13 per cent as per the 2001 Census. Only Subathu and Jutog cantonments have witnessed higher growth rates of 54.56 per cent and 47.74 per cent, respectively.