Dharamshala: Freeing up army controlled township areas for civilian control, the central government has in principle given permission to abolish Yol Cantonment Board near Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, minister for urban development, stated here.
Sharma said “the civil areas that till now were under the control of the cantonment board would be included in Dharamshala Municipal Corporation and Yol would only be considered as a Military Station.”
Sharma added that Yol would be the first cantonment board of India to be abolished to facilitate civilians. “It was all made made possible due to the regular dialogue that the Himachal Pradesh government had with the central government. The minister thanked chief minister Virbhadra Singh for making it possible.
The minister disclosed that the ministry of defense has asked the state government to prepare for overtaking the management of the civic amenities and public properties of the area.
An arrangement worked would involve the government absorbing the staff employed by the cantonment board, the state government would purchase the buildings and the land of the five schools, vocational training center and a 20 bedded hospital buildings that the Yol Cantonment Board had set up in its administered area.
Concerned state government departments would overtake the set of departments that the board had set up after the Yol Cantonment Board is de-notified, said Sudhir Sharma.
In another related development, chief minister Virbhadra Singh told media persons that the government was considering to make Dharamshala a permanent winter capital of the state to enable better functioning of the government.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
Oh god! And people are o. K with this move? ?
What is the latest status of civil areas of Yol Cantt ?
why they are doing such blunders. Its like digging their own graves
It is a very seriously flawed and dangerous move by the central government of India (BJP) and HP government (BJP). Not only the defense establishments will get exposed to anti national elements but also the clean oasis in various parts of the country will become garbage dumps and will grabbed by corrupt politicians and land maphias. The defense ministry and the nation should wake up to the expected dangerous consequences and to their effects on national security.
State govt could not find any other place to setup their winter capital apart from the army building and hospital . Every one wants army to be away from them during normal time but the moment their is a terrorist attack they expect to protect them within no time . God save the nation
I am not sure, what they will extract out of it. Various civil amenities and establishments are already in bad shape, they should rather work on those.
Next, put up the Army in tents, like refugees perhaps? Dangerous days ahead!
Seems the State and Central Govts have no idea about how the Defence Forces function and what makes them stand apart from the rest of the defunct statutory authorities.. Such idiotic self goals..
Easy way to sell cantt land
See d difference in d management in d Cantonments & civil areas. This would mess up every thing and even harm d security of d Army esteblishments, ultimately harming d security of d Nation.
In d democratic country like ours if d Govt. insists on such change, they should do it on experimental basis at a place or two , and take d opinion of d residents, I am sure, no one would agree for such catostrophic change.