Closed Secunderabad roads draw flak

Hyderabad: Residents of the Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad (FNECS) want to know if the civilian area around the cantonment is a security issue as the road closures at night are causing inconvenience and emergency vehicles are having a problem as they have to take a detour. The residents of Yapral, Bolarum, Kapra, ECIL, and Malkajgiri, are suffering the most due to this.

A senior resident from Yapral on condition of anonymity explained, “Our concerns are being raised because it is not clear whether this is a temporary or permanent closure. There are four municipalities which are adjoining the Cantonment area and there is a large number of civilians who are affected. We need to know how long this closure will last.” Residents who have visted the North Indian cities after the Pulwama attack claim that the cantonment areas places in like Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, and Amritsar, have already been opened up and there are no restrictions.

For this reason, questions are being raised about whether the walkers, joggers, and the normal civilians who use the roads are a threat to the security of the area.

Political economist Mohan Guruswamy said, “The Pulwama attack happened on a highway, and the Secunderabad Cantonment is 3,000 kilometres away. Some of the Cantonments have already opened their roads to the general public. The ministry of defence has clearly stated that due procedure should be followed before closing the roads. However, nobody followed any procedure here in Secunderabad.”

Another resident in Yapral said, “We are facing a lot of issues as we have to travel 8 kilometres extra to drop our children to school. The ten routes which had been reopened have now been closed again. The local military authority is using the high alert situation to close the roads, which is not fair.”

The residents have also marked Mr K.T. Rama Rao, the working presid-ent of the TRS, to intervene and take up the issue but there has not been any response.

The residents have been calling the office of Mr. Rama Rao but to no avail.

A senior resident of Sainikpuri said, “The FN-ECS has received a cold response from Mr Rama Rao, who was otherwise always willing to hear us out. This time, we have received no response at all. We are very dejected with these illegal closures. The civilians are being divided and there is no justification for this kind of closure.”

To add to their woes are the huge traffic problems at night on the Karkhana-Tirumalagiri-RK Puram road which is chock-a-block throughout the night.

It is the only arterial road which is accessible to all the colonies that use the road as a connection to the main city.

Another citizen on condition of anonymity said, “High alert is on airports and railway stations as well, but they have not been closed. 95 per cent of the armed forces stay in the safe civilian colonies in Secunderabad, where there has never been a problem. Why they are continuing with this division is not understood.”

A senior local military defense official on condition of anonymity explai-ned, “The situation has not stabilised yet and therefore, as a precautionary measure, the roads are still closed. We have not received any orders stating that the state of affairs has normalised to allow the roads to be opened at night for the general public. The closure is temporary but we can't predict how long it will last.”