Secunderabad: Six years on, no respite for civilians as LMA continues to close roads

SECUNDERABAD: Even after six years, the fight against the repeated closure of 25 civilian roads is still on. From 2014, the local military authority (LMA) has been shutting these 150-year-old roads quite often, causing severe inconvenience to people.
Among the 62 cantonment boards, only the people living in and around the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) are facing this road closure problem.The tussle between the army and the civilians has now reached the Supreme Court and is expected to be raised during the monsoon session of the parliament.

To exert pressure on the LMA and reclaim their right to freedom of movement, around 3.5 lakh people came on one platform, Open Secunderabad All Cantonment Roads (OSCAR).
Another association, United Federation of Residential Welfare Associations (UFERWAS) has also joined hands with FNECS and OSCAR to put up a united fight against LMA. OSCAR is using various media platforms and is repeatedly approaching the MoD and the Telangana state government.
“We may even get rid of Covid-19 after the vaccine comes, but not sure when we would overcome this problem of road closure. We are only asking LMA to follow the orders issued by the ministry of defence (MoD) and open the roads. On one pretext or the other LMA shuts these roads,” said Pankaj Seth, resident of Yapral.
Another major demand is to widen these roads. “All these roads were laid in the 19th century and have become narrow and weak. It is high time they are widened and relaid,” said CS Chandrasekhar, secretary, Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad (FNECS).
Senior citizen Anoop Kumar, who is also the member of OSCAR hoped that they would get respite from the Apex Court. “Fed up with LMA we approached the Supreme Court. Hope the top court would provide a solution to this issue,” Kumar said.