Residents in a fix as Centre cancels Cantonment Board elections

File photo of a poster put up by the members of Ward 2 and Ward 3 depicting the lost voter names compared to 2015 electoral roll, at Secunderabad Cantonment Board, in Secunderabad on March 16, 2023. | Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Residents and welfare associations of Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) are in a fix as the elections scheduled for April 30 have been deferred by the Ministry of Defence. While some have labelled it as injustice, considering that the entire election process and campaigning had started, others are relieved by the move so that the GHMC-SCB merger issue can move forward.

Telukunta Satish Gupta from Ward 5 of SCB said “The people have already waited three years for the elections to be held and finally when the process had begun, the Centre cancelled it. Election is a democratic process and needed for the cantonment board. There are many volunteers who have done a lot of ground work, right from distributing pamphlets to helping others get their names included in the electoral roll. It is disappointing for such people.”

Meanwhile, members of the Cantonment Vikas Manch (CVM), an NGO which has been legally challenging the election since the notification was announced, expressed happiness over the development. “This move will allow the GHMC-SCB merger to happen so that a lot of problems are solved. We will continue our fight until the merger process is complete,” said CVM general secretary Sanki Ravinder.

Commenting on the issue, CEO of SCB, Madhukar Naik said the board is not aware of the reason behind the elections being cancelled. “So far, the board had called for the names for inclusion in electoral rolls and the objections were being heard by the nominee of the SCB president. Now that the notification [about cancellation] has come, that process also has been ceased,” he added.

SCB member J.Ramakrishna said that the government will now be assessing the lapses and shortfalls which had come to light during the election process. There was major vote disparity, and quite a good number of voter names were missing apart from issues in implementation of Supreme Court guidelines. 

Now that the polls have been called off, the State government should use tge opportunity and make sure that the GHMC-SCB merger issue is sorted before the next election notification is issued, said C.S. Chandrashekar of the Federation of Northeast Colonies of Secunderabad.