India Dissolving 62 Cantonments Boards

India Dissolving 62 Cantonments Boards – In a major move, the Indian government has decided to dissolve all 62 army cantonment boards in the country discontinuing the archaic colonial legacies. It was mentioned that civilian areas under the cantonments will be handed over to municipal bodies and army area will be turned into military stations. The move is aimed to benefit civilians who were not getting access to state government welfare schemes and enable the army to focus more on developing military stations. Cantonment Board employees and assets will be taken over by the civic bodies after the decision is implemented. Civilian residents of the cantonments generally do not get benefits of welfare schemes of the respective state governments as the military facilities are governed by cantonment boards through the Defence Estates Department of the Ministry of Defence. It was also mentioned that there has been a popular demand from civilian residents and also state governments for the excision of cantonments. A considerable portion of the defence budget is spent on the development of civil areas of the cantonments. It was added that due to the ever-increasing expansion of civil areas of cantonments, there is pressure on prime defence land in these facilities. The Weekender