Grievances of Cantonment residents discussed in a meeting held in Pune

Pune, November 13, 2018: The grievances of Cantonment residents of Pune and Khadki were discussed in a meeting held today in the city.  The meeting was conducted with the expert committee on working of cantonment, which is a committee of Ministry of Defense.

The committee is appointed by defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman under the chairmanship of Sumit Bose. MP Anil Shirole, Dilip Kamble, minister of state for social justice, MLA Vijay Kale, Dr. Madhumita Roy, Rakesh Mittal, Ravikant Chopra, Lt. Gen. Amit Sharma were present for the meeting.

Giving information about the meeting, Shirole said , ‘‘The issues such as problems due to proximity to the city, non-receipt of share of GST, cantonment area being deprived of many Central and State government schemes etc. and more were communicated to me. I was following up the issue on regular basis and had written to the defense minister. Few months ago, a meeting was held up in Delhi with the defense minister. Vice presidents of 62 cantonments and MPs from that area were present for that meeting. On this backdrop an expert committee on working of cantonment was established. A delegation of this committee had made its visit to Pune cantonment recently.’’

The possibility of shifting the cantonment area was thoroughly discussed, said Shirole. ‘‘When the borders of cantonments were decided, the cities were not as expanded as they are now. But in today’s times, cantonments have become an extended part of the city area. It may be considered if it would be proper to select appropriate locations for cantonments, so that cantonments could be shifted in those areas and the areas vacated by the cantonments be merged with respective cities or towns. This would become a huge program for relocation of cantonments with special emphasis on their changed needs with the passage of time.,’’ Said Shirole.