Kangra’s Yol sheds cantonment tag

New Delhi, May 1

In a departure from the colonial practice of creating cantonments, Yol in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh has shed its tag as a cantonment.

Military areas within the cantonment will be converted into a military station and civilian areas have been excluded to be merged with the local municipality. Cantonment Board employees and assets will be taken over by the municipality.

A notification to this effect was published by the Centre on April 27.

This is a first among a series of exclusion of civilian areas from 62 cantonments across the country, some of them are more than 200 years old. Approximately 1.61 lakh acres of land is held within 62 notified cantonments under the Ministry of Defence.

Officials in Delhi said the exclusion of civilian areas at Yol would prove beneficial. Civilians who were, until now, not getting access to state government welfare schemes through the municipality will now be in a position to avail these.

Civilian residents of cantonments are not benefitted from the state welfare schemes since they are governed by the Cantonment Boards through the Centre’s Defence Estates Department. There is a popular demand from residents and state governments to exclude civilian areas from cantonments.

A considerable portion of the defence budget is spent on the development of civilian areas of the cantonments. Also due to the ever-increasing expansion of civilian areas, there is pressure on the defence land. Cantonments were colonial phenomena and an exclusive military station was better administered, officials said.

Affairs related to the cantonments, including the construction of new buildings, their height, commercial conversion, sewage and rest were all controlled by the Cantonment Board.

Presently, a similar exclusion is planned in Nasirabad, Rajasthan. Many decades ago, such exclusions had been carried out in Ambala and Agra. Prior to 1947, cantonments like Dharamsala and Sitapur were denotified.