Gough Road issue reaches Parliament

Citizens unhappy with the way the issue is progressing

The Secunderabad Cantonment road closure issue was mentioned in the budget session of the Rajya Sabha. However, locals are unhappy with the question raised by MP M.A. Khan.

The MP asked whether the government had decided to close Gough Road and whether it was aware that many citizens were facing hardships because of it. Dr Subhash Bhamre, Union Minister of State for Defence, responded to the question by saying that the army had decided to close Gough Road, on grounds of security, from December 1, 2015. However, the decision was being deferred taking into consideration the inconvenience caused to the public, he said.

Members of the Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad appreciated the MP for raising a question about the issue in Parliament but said that his question was irrelevant.

Pankaj Sethi, a member of the Federation, said that he wished the Parliament could have been enlightened about the problems that onesixth of the population of the state capital was suffering from because of the Cantonment Board’s unilateral decision.

Pavan Kumar, an advocate from Yapral, said that the closure of roads had greatly affected people. “Before, it took us just five minutes to go from Yapral to the Cantonment Hospital in Bollarum. Since the closure of roads, we have to travel nearly 10 km to get there. People in several areas are facing similar problems,” he said.