Indian Army Hands Over Cantonments to Civilians. The controls of Cantonments belonging to the Central Command, South Western Command and Southern Command will move away from the Army. These cantonments are in multiple provinces. Thus, the hand over will change the control from India’s Army to the Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh governments.

The move is a part of strategic policy decision of Narendra Modi’s government, claims Deccan Herald. At present, 10 cantonments will transfer to the civilian authorities. The Army Commands in the region are processing the completion of paperwork for the transfer. All these cantonments will merge into urban local bodies of Dehradun, Deolali, Nasirabad, Babina, Ajmer, Ramgarh, Mathura, Shahjahanpur, Clement Town and Fatehgarh.

Indian government considers cantonments as a ‘Colonial Legacy’ and a comprehensive policy exercise chose to abolish 62 cantonments across the Indian territory. The military areas within a cantonment will be converted into a Military Station. The civil areas will move to the local municipal authorities.

History of Cantonments

Historically, cantonment is a temporary base for a particular campaign or war. Within United Kingdom, there are no cantonments. The British Army maintains Garrisons at Aldershot, Catterick, and Colchester in the UK and at Westfalen Germany. Moreover, the smaller bases are known as “Camps”.

The cantonments were large chunks of land within the major cities across British India. Moreover, these were exclusive areas for British soldiers and their families under the British era. These were built purposefully to avoid contact with civilians. The Britishers were the invaders and Indians were the occupied nation.

However, the independence from British rule for India and Pakistan brought a new challenge. The cities expanded extensively with huge populations. A large number of civilians reside within the close proximity or inside these cantonments. At several occasions, these cantonments are troublesome for civil life in terms of privacy, road access or other similar issues.

Thus, a strategic decision from the Indian government results in giving them away in the civilian control.