Secunderabad Cantonment Board: 35,000 voters deleted

Hyderabad: Ahead of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board election, around 35,000 residents have been stripped of their voting rights. Local activists and human rights groups have expressed anger over the decision.

Secunderabad Cantonment Board cited the Supreme Court order in the Pachmarhi Cantonment Board case. Some tourists had begun to set up tea stalls, canteens, and temporary sheds, much to the dissatisfaction of the residents who considered them encroachers or slum dwellers. Later Supreme Court ruled that these tourists should be denied the right to vote in the area.

Speaking to Newsmeter, Krishank Manne, Chairman of TSMDC said: “These individuals are labeled as slum dwellers and encroachers by the Secunderabad Cantonment Board, which cited a 2018 Supreme Court order that barred such individuals from voting in Cantonment Board elections. However, it was revealed that these individuals were not given any prior notice or informed of the decision, which is a violation of Article 19(1) A, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression.”

Cantonment Board has not provided any official statement on the number of affected voters. The actual number of affected voters could be higher than the reported 35,000, as the total number of votes has decreased from 1,69,000 in 2015 to 1,32,000 currently, despite an expected increase in the number of voters.

In 2008, the Cantonment Board deleted the votes of 28,023 people based on a Supreme Court order. In 2021, one of the associates of the affected voters filed an RTI and discovered that the Cantonment Board had removed 17,000 votes from Ward II. However, no official number of affected voters or wards has been provided by the Cantonment Board.

“The Cantonment Board's decision is arbitrary and violates due process, as no district magistrate has certified these individuals as encroachers. They have called on the Cantonment Board to restore the voting rights of these individuals ahead of the elections and to follow proper procedures,” said Krishank Manne

He said the CEO of the Cantonment Board has to address these concerns and disenfranchisement of a large number of people could have serious consequences. The lack of transparency and official communication from the Cantonment Board has further fueled the outrage and concern of local activists and human rights groups.

Maheshwar Reddy, former vice-president of the Secunderabad Cantonment board said the people who have been living in the area for over 50 years have been receiving all municipal services such as water, drinking water, drainage, and streetlights. “However, because of a case filed in one cantonment, the same regulations have been enforced in all other 61 cantonments. Although there were several agitations against this decision, it was taken by the Supreme Court, and it cannot be superseded,” he said.

Maheshwar Reddy noted that it is not fair to deny services to people who have been using them for years just because they live on defence land. “According to the Act of 2006, all municipal services should be provided to everyone, regardless of where they live. Reddy suggests that the Supreme Court may have to amend the act to avoid agitation,” he said

Pankaj Sethi, a resident of the cantonment said, “I strongly believe that all elections should follow the same uniform laws. It's unfair to deny someone the right to vote based on the incorrectness of their houses, encroachment, or lack of proper address. If such reasons are deemed unacceptable for cantonment board elections, then it should also apply to general elections.”

“It is evident that cantonment boards are governed by separate laws from the state government, created by the cantonment act. However, it's unclear why the denial of voting rights exists in cantonment board elections when it's not a condition for voting in GHMC encroachments.” Pankaj recently shifted from Gunrock to Vikrampuri as he was not recognized there and was labeled an encroacher.

Secunderabad Cantonment Board Election:

Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) is among the 57 Cantonment Boards set to hold the election on April 30, as per the notification announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The SCB has a total of eight wards, with three of them reserved for women (wards II, V, and VI), one reserved for Scheduled Castes (ward VIII), and the remaining four (wards I, III, IV, and VII) reserved for the general category.

According to SCB officials, the upcoming election will be held based on free symbols, and the ward reservations will remain the same as in 2019. The SCB board's last term, which ran from 2015-2020, had its tenure extended for an additional three years. The notification for the upcoming election has received mixed responses from SCB officials. While some have welcomed it, others have expressed concern that the electoral process could delay the merger of civil areas of SCB with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

It remains to be seen how the election will impact the future of SCB, and whether the merger with GHMC will indeed be delayed. The upcoming election is sure to draw the attention of voters and officials alike, as they eagerly await the results and the direction in which SCB will head in the years to come.