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Varanasi Cantonment residents threaten poll boycott over property records
At a press conference, Satyendra Sharma, one of the residents of the Cantonment area in Varanasi, said, “A register was prepared under sections 266, 267, and 268 of the Cantonment Code 1899.
A group of residents from the Cantonment area in Varanasi on Sunday announced that they would boycott voting if they were not provided a copy of a document related to the record of properties, which was prepared under sections 266, 267 and 268 of the Cantonment Code 1899 by the Cantonment Board Varanasi, within a fortnight.
At a press conference, Satyendra Sharma, one of the residents of the Cantonment area in Varanasi, said, “A register was prepared under sections 266, 267, and 268 of the Cantonment Code 1899. All records related to the properties in the Cantonment area are registered in that document, which is public. We have been demanding a copy of the document prepared under sections 266, 267, and 268 of the Cantonment Code from the Cantonment Board Varanasi. This document is related to property ownership, and we need it. We met with the Cantonment Board chief executive officer (CEO) several times but received only assurances.”
Sharma explained that they had submitted a letter to the Cantonment Board CEO at least four times since 2020, requesting a copy of the document. Each time, they were given mere assurances by the Cantonment Board’s CEO.
In March 2024, Sharma said, they decided to hold a protest to press for their demand. However, the protest was canceled after the Cantonment Board Authority held a meeting with a nominated member, listened to the residents’ demands, and assured them they would provide a copy of the records.
Sharma added, “We plan to submit a letter to the Cantonment Board CEO, Akansha Tiwari, on April 29, requesting her to provide a copy of the document by May 14.”
“If we do not receive a copy of the document within a fortnight from the Cantonment Board, we will be forced to boycott voting in the upcoming election,” said Sharma. Manmohan Gupta stated that since no one was listening to them, they had decided to boycott the voting in the upcoming election.
Other residents who spoke at the press conference included Dhananjay Singh, Rajesh Gupta, Manmohan Gupta, Neeraj Das, Mayank Agarwal, Jyoti Mishra, Rudra Vyas, Santosh Gupta, Mohammad Salim and Vivek Singh.
