MoD takes U-turn, to conduct cantt board election on April 30

Ambika Sharma

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Solan, February 21

A week after the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) extended the term of members of the cantonment boards by six months, it has now decided to hold ordinary elections on April 30.

The MoD is excising civil areas from 62 cantonments nationwide and the exercise has been completed in a few cantonments, including Yol.

Earlier, the elections were held after every five years to elect civilian members, who constitute the board along with the ex-officio members, comprising Officer Commanding the station as well as the Chief Executive Officer of the board.

Officials in the key cantonment town of Kasauli said they had begun the preparation for the poll with the revision of voters’ lists being

the first task. A request

will be made to the Solan Deputy Commissioner to appoint a Returning Officer to conduct the elections and notify the dates for it.

Kasauli has a population of about 3,800 with about 2,000 voters as per the 2011 Census. More voters are likely to be added to the list during the revision of the list.

Six members are elected from the civil population in Kasauli for a term of five years. The last elections were held in 2015 and the term of the elected members was extended by a year till 2021. Later, the board was declared invalid and it remained so for several months. After the elections were put on hold last year, a civil member was nominated by the MoD for a term of six months as a stop-gap arrangement. This term was extended to another six months on February 7.

In a surprise move, the MoD, as per its notification issued, had now announced the elections on February 14. Some residents opposed the move as they opined that it would put on hold the exercise to exclude the civil areas from the cantonments.

A section of the residents, however, said it would give them an opportunity to represent civilians in the board till the excising exercise was not accomplished. “The representation of civilians in the board will help in the effective redress of their problems,” said a former civilian member, Devinder Gupta.

6 cantonments from state on list

• The notification includes six state cantonments — Dagshai, Subathu, Kasauli, Jutog, Bakloh & Dalhousie
• The notification, issued by the Union Ministry of Defence on Feb 17, wasfor 57 cantonment boards across the country
• Cantonment town of Yol in Kangra district has been excluded from this list