SCB to come up with land use plan

Eligibility for JNNURM funds, trade licences at stake

To put an end to unplanned haphazard development, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board has decided to prepare a land-use plan that will identify and demarcate the roads and areas of the Cantonment into residential, commercial, semi-commercial, transportation, recreational and green area among others zones.

Secunderabad Cantonment chief executive officer Sujatha Gupta on Wednesday, said that a landuse plan was mandatory for the Cantonment Board to be eligible for Central funds under various schemes like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Till date, the Cantonment does not have a land-use plan of its own due to which the SCB is not eligible for funds under JNNURM. Also, while hundreds of commercial establishments have been set up in the Cantonment, officials are not able to issue trade licences as there is no land- use plan.

A land-use plan would enable commercial establishments that had come up in commercial zones to be issued with trade licences and those operating in residential zones could be asked to shift to commercial zones.

SCB president Brigadier Sunil S. Bodhe asked all the eight elected civilian ward members to give their suggestions regarding the land-use plan, which would be incorporated in the plan after deliberation in the next Board meeting.

The Board meeting on Wednesday also declared Ward-8 as reserved for Scheduled Castes for elections. The Board meeting also passed a resolution to provide required equipment for opening gymnasiums in all the eight wards of the Cantonment.

Meanwhile, SCB CEO Ms Sujatha Gupta sought more time to give the three-member panel’s opinion on CBI cases pending against SCB engineers involved in encouragement of illegal constructions.