HP seeks aid to bear liabilities of Cantt civilian areas

More than a month after the Himachal Pradesh Government expressed its reservations about bearing the liabilities of six cantonment towns facing “excision” of civilian areas, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is yet to decide on the matter.

Devesh Kumar, Principal Secretary of the state Urban Development Department, said that inheriting six-fold liabilities totalling Rs 30 crore, while barely earning Rs 5 crore in revenue from the six towns, would be unsustainable without receiving a grant-in-aid from the Centre. The concerns have been highlighted in a letter addressed to the Director, Defence Estate, on November 27.

The excising exercise is underway in the six cantonment towns of Subathu, Dagshai and Kasauli (Solan); Bakloh and Dalhousie

(Chamba); and Jutogh (Shimla). The exercise is underway in 58 towns across the country.

According to excising modalities, the state government is supposed to take over the civilian areas as well as the liabilities of its employees, pensioners and institutes such as schools and hospitals. While the onus of providing amenities in civilian areas will be shifted to the state, cantonment boards will continue to enjoy title rights over the transferred land.

With defence authorities asserting that the decision on excising the cantonments was non-negotiable and that only modalities for merging the excised areas with nearby municipalities were being finalised, it remained to be seen how a middle path could be achieved, said an official.

The official said an assessment of the three cantonment towns in Solan district revealed that the state had “less to gain and more to spend”. Of the 104 regular employees, 51 are proposed to be transferred to the state government in Kasauli. There are 45 outsourced employees and 23 of them are expected to be sent to the state government.

These employees work in various offices like the cantonment board, hospital and a primary school. The state will inherit an annual liability of Rs 2.74 crore on account of their salary and other benefits by absorbing these employees. The Kasauli Cantonment Board has a population of 3,885, as per the 2011 Census.

Among the major liabilities in Subathu, the state will have to spend Rs 75 lakh annually on running a hospital. The town has a civilian population of 8,720.

In Dagshai cantonment, which has a population of 2,904, an amount of Rs 20 lakh would have to be spent on running a general hospital annually and Rs 12 lakh on an ayurvedic dispensary, among other expenditures.

A Kasauli cantonment board official confirmed that no fresh communication had been received from the Defence Ministry after the state government’s November 27 communication.