‘Govt to release Cantt land to municipality’

NEW DELHI, July 24: All civil areas of cantonments including that of Shillong will be merged with the municipalities to bring uniformity in municipal laws, Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Accordingly, broad modalities for proposed excision of civil areas in 58 Cantonments have been shared with concerned state governments for their comments. The excision of civil areas and their merger with state municipalities involve active consultation and concurrence of the concerned state governments.
Various representations have been received from public and elected representatives, and also from few state governments requesting for excision of civil areas from cantonments. But it is not feasible to provide any timeframe for its implementation, the minister said.
There is no bar on implementation of state government schemes by concerned state governments in cantonment areas. All state governments are already extending benefits of various schemes to the residents in cantonments.