Army must reveal threats: Veteran
including a frontline strategic security challenge base in Kashmir.
He said one cannot fight today’s security challenges with yesterday’s knowledge because the threat perception is changing every day. “Notwithstanding all the security in any military station, there have been attacks. How can one ensure security by closing roads,” he asked.
Coming down heavily on the LMA blocking the arterial road passing through the golf course with a wall, he asks, “The phantom threat to strategic assets abutting A1 road is fallacious and misleading. Blocked roads in the cantonment are indeed public A1 roads as per the Cantonment Act 2006 and CLA rules and the LMA has subverted the law by blocking them arbitrarily.”
In response to the families of army men citing security concerns, he says, “These apprehensions are psychologically associated with any change. The senior officers must counsel them on the legal status of A1 roads in the Cantonment and make them feel secure with point defence (fencing of the quarters, guards at the entry/exit points) and motivate them to become inclusive.” All this while, the local military authorities have been claiming that all the roads closed in Secunderabad Cantonment fall in the A1 category (sensitive defence land). However, this does not seem to be the case.
The Rule 5 and13 of the Cantonment Land Administration Rules 1937 clearly differentiate between A1 Land and A1 Road. It states: “The Army has the right over A1 land but not the A1 roads. Road margins should be vested with the Cantonment Board and classified as Class C. Only the metalled (top) surface and drains of roads over which the public has right of way and which are maintained by the Military Engineering Service should be included in Class A (1) category.’
It should be noted that A1 lands are exclusive to the military, but A1 roads can be used by the public. “Citizens have the right of way on those roads, though they are maintained by the Military Engineering Services (MES),’ say the Rules.
A member of the Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad said, “The power to close any road lies with the Secundera-bad Cantonment Board and not the Local Military Authority. The Cantonment Act is the applicable law and Section 258 is the relevant one.”
The ministry of defence has directed the military authority to open the roads and monitor the situation for 30 days. Residents question as to how the traffic and security assessment can be done without even opening the roads, when onethirds of the given period has ended.
According to the May 28 defence ministry order, “If a road is proposed to be closed, a draft closure order would be published in three newspapers and also put up on the website of the cantonment board for inviting objections from the public.”
This shows that the power to close any road lies with the cantonment board and not with the LMA. After considering objections if the board feels the necessity to still close the road, then the closure order will be sent to the MoD for legal scrutiny and later the road would be closed.