1500 Telangana residents hold candle march to protest road closure

Over 1,500 Secunderabad residents took out a candlelight march from A S Rao Nagar grounds to Neredmet on Tuesday to protest against the closure of 12 roads by the Local Military Authority (LMA) in Secunderabad Cantonment.

The march was initiated by Federation of Northeast Colonies, Green Sainikpuri along with members of Open Secunderabad Cantonment Area All Roads, including several women and children.

“The LMA has closed the public roads without following the procedure specified in the Cantonment Act 2006. It affects several residents. We demand them to open all the 12 roads immediately,” said S Chandrashekar, founder of OSCAR.

He also said that because of the road closure, what used to be an 800-metre ride earlier has turned into a minimum 8 km ride for several residents.

“We demand all the roads closed by the Local Military Authority (LMA) to be opened without any delay, till an alternative is provided. Due to closure of the road, thousands of students of nearby schools have been affected, as they reach their schools late. Even the locals are also facing inconvenience due to closure of the road, as they have been forced to travel on alternate longer routes,” he added.

The issue started in February 2014, when the army put out a notice which claimed that the entire area would be blocked, and the general public was advised to use the main roads to reach their destination.

The protesters complained that the alternate road they have to take is narrow, crowded and witnesses a traffic jam at least two or three times a day.

Meanwhile, the LMA and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) started a joint survey to identify alternate roads from Safilguda railway station to RK Puram Flyover.