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Yol can’t?: Month on, move to dissolve cantonment has residents divided
Piling garbage is one the many problems plaguing Yol, Dharamshala, which have residents question whether the city can find its footing as s non-cantonment town
The Indian Army’s April notification to abolish the Yol Khas Cantonment Board, tipped as an effort “end to archaic and colonial practices” was met with delight by a majority of local residents.
For the civilians, the move was seen as the city being broken free of the shackles of “tight control” — one that would pave the way for easier living, rapid development and benefits of various centres and state-run schemes.
The same came in the backdrop of the Union government planning to abolish all cantonments in the country and transfer land under cantonment to civil municipal authorities.
Yol became the first to shed the “cantonment town” tag on April 27, when MoD joint secretary Rakesh Mittal issued a notification to dissolve it.
Though the process had been going on for over 10 years, the abrupt end to the 81-year-old cantonment has hit basic services in the small hill-town, which has an estimated population of about 16,000.
Yol cantonment board managed over 15 km of roads, 1,500 drains, over 650 water connections, nearly 250 streetlights, and five schools. The residents are now divided in their opinion over the latest move.
“Plenty of problems have emerged, garbage collection being the most apparent. Waste is piling up and there is nobody to collect it and drains are blocked,” said Manoj Chandel, who runs a sweet shop at Yol.
Water supply was disrupted for a few days and after the cantonment was dissolved. While the problem was fixed, the fear of it cropping up again has residents worried.
No man’s land
“This is time for admissions in the schools and people don’t know where to get the income certificates,” Chandel said, adding that there was no authority to issue birth and death certificates.
Notably, the state government had proposed merger of the seven wards of Yol Cantonment Board in adjoining four panchayats namely Rakker, Baghni, Tangroti Khas and Narwana Khas. However, these panchayats are yet to issue the no-objection certificates to take over the area.
There is lack of clarity on whether the Yol cantonment areas will be merged into the panchayats or a new one will be created.
While the local residents are jostling with their own issues, the move has also affected the employees and pensioners of the cantonment board. About 150 outsourced employees have lost jobs.
Tilak Thakur, a retired teacher said the 98 pensioners of the cantonment board have been attached to Dalhousie Cantonment, while 36 conservancy staff with Bakloh cantt in Chamba district. That means if a pensioner has to get his service-related work done, he would have to travel more than 100 km. He said while 24 regular employees have been merged in state government departments, outsourced employees, some of them working for five, six years, have been shunted out.
“The government should have at least merged the outsourced employees having more than three years of service as some of them were sole breadwinners of their families,” he said.
Those who have lost their jobs include teachers at the high school managed by erstwhile cantonment board, drivers, office clerks, sanitation workers and others.
Despite all the worries, there are many who support the decision. Jinesh Kumar, a resident, said the locals will finally be able to lead an easy life after decades.
“Under the cantonment board, taxes were high, but services very poor,” he said, adding that the problems will soon fade away.
Gian Chand, president of Yol Cantonment Board Sangharsh Smiti, who was on the forefront of agitation for the abolition of cantonment said the residents had been fighting for their rights for decades.
He also noted the rate of house tax and other taxes in the cantonment were very high, while the services rather poor.
“There were restrictions on the movement of the locals and we were also not getting benefits of central and state welfare schemes despite our area being rural and underdeveloped,” he said.
Chand also counted other benefits like easier construction and land use norms, but conceded that waste collection had become a problem.
“We have communicated the same to panchayats concerned and also the district administration,” he said, adding things would get to normal soon.
Yol town was established by the British Indian Army in 1849 and got its name from YOL (Young Officers Leave Camp). About 7 km from Dharamshala, it served as a prisoner- of-war camp during World War II and hosted Italian soldiers captured from various war theatres.
It was made a cantonment in 1942 and used as a refugee camp for rehabilitating people uprooted due to the partition of India in 1947.
Currently, it is the headquarters of Rising Star Corps or the 9 Corps of the Indian Army.
