Yol to cease as army cantonment soon

Dharamshala: In a major relief to civilian population of 12,028 at Yol, one of seven army cantonments in Himachal Pradesh, the ministry of defence has agreed to accept state government plea to scrap British -era cantonment board, and enable local administration to have its control over an area of 1,100 acre .

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting, held in New Delhi last week.

With state assembly's winter session starting at Dharamshala on Monday ,the development is likely to get lot of public attention. Yol Camp is barely one and half kilometer from Vidhan Sabha complex, set-up in 2006.

State's Chief Secretary Dr Srikant Baldi, when contracted confirmed the move. He said the decision to abolish the cantonment will become affect after March 31,2020. Before this, all modalities will be worked out by the state government and the central governments.

State's secretary for rural development and panchayat R N Batta was in Delhi on Friday to hold detailed discussions with top officials of the defence ministry. A committee of four members, comprising representatives from the central government and state will finalise a report by January 31,2020 on the issue. State approval of the state cabinet will also be mandatory, said an official.

The demand for abolishing the cantonment board has been getting credence for quite some-time. The local residents had been complaining about lack of freedom from the army restrictions ,and need for a planned development of the areas.

Set-up in 1941, Yol is currently headquarters of the Rising Star Corps. The locals claims that due to cantonment board,they were not getting benefits of the central schemes like MGNREGS and NRHM.

Sometime back, the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation had also passed a resolution demanding the inclusion of Yol Cantonment Board areas in the corporation but state government initiative the proposal for making its as panchayati raj area.