SCB merger plea will be taken up with CM: KTR

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said the appeals by residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) area to merge the cantonment limits with GHMC would be taken up with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.

Apart from administrative and coordination issues between SCB and State government, other factors were compelling residents to demand merger with GHMC, he said, addressing media persons here.

“The State government has been implementing TS-bPASS for immediate building permission approvals and setting up Annapurna centres offering quality food to the needy but such welfare programmes cannot be implemented in SCB,” he pointed out.

Further, the SCB authorities arbitrarily closed nearly 40 roads, subjecting residents to a lot of hardships, the Minister said, adding that despite Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar



and other officials taking up the issue with the Local Military Authority (LMA), there was no relief for residents.

“For the past seven years, the State government has been appealing to the Central government on different development projects like constructing skywalks and other issues but there has been no response,” Rama Rao said. “This is even after the State government expressed its willingness to offer land for the projects,” he said.

The Minister said he had sought people’s opinion on the issue through Twitter after he read reports in a section of the media regarding SCB residents’ requests to merge Cantonment limits with GHMC a few days ago. “Over 75 per cent of people favoured merger of Cantonment limits with GHMC. This matter will be brought to the notice of the Chief Minister,” Rama Rao said.