Ferozepur, June 9, 2020: Civilians in the Cantonment area of the town are a harassed lot. They have no ownership rights to the land they have built their houses on and octroi is still imposed in the area.More than 45,000 civilians in the area are upset that their pleas on the issue have been ignored.
In 1995, under the New Land Area Act, applications were sought from the Cantonment residents to apply for free-hold rights, while depositing 1/3 of the land cost as per Standard Table Rate (STR) along with required documents to the Cantonment Authorities. Since they are fighting for getting ownership rights.
Advocate Ashwani Dhingra, a resident of cantonment civilian area said, our Prime Minister Narendera Modi had said that first of all the law by the British applicable on 62 Cantonment boards in the country, will be repealed.
Since the independence of India, we do not own the right over the properties owned by us. The Centre government has invited proposals on this issue by June 16, to take the final decision of June 30, 2020.
Dhingra said, it is the right time to unite to register our protest before the target date, to turn the tables on our side. It’s a common cause of all the residents of the cantonment area and if we don’t fight with a collective force, we will continue to be accustomed to the living of life as slaves.
There is a need to study the existing Cantonment Act and to make specific recommendations for suitably amending it for modernization and democratization of the governance structure of Cantonment Boards keeping in view the interests of the residents of civilians in cantonment areas, he added.
By HMD