Denotification of Cantonments
Published on 08 Jan 2025
Denotification of Cantonments
• Recently, the Ministry of Defense has
de notified civil areas of 10 cantonments.
• The process involves merging these areas
with state municipalities.
- A cantonment refers to a permanent military
station (a term from the colonial era).
- Cantonments have strict restrictions on
construction, road use, and common area
occupation, causing tension between civilians
and the military.
- Civilians face challenges in obtaining home
loans and accessing government schemes.
- In 2023, the Ministry of Defense had notified
that plan to carve out the military areas in
cantonments and convert them into “exclusive
military stations” with the Army exercising
“absolute control” over them.
Military stations are purely military areas where
only military personnel and their families reside.
- The civilian areas, in turn, will be merged with the local municipalities to provide them with the benefits of various government schemes. Cantonments were established by the East India Company after the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Barrackpore (Calcutta) was the first Cantonment established in 1765. Currently, there are 62 cantonments in India.
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- Cantonment Boards are categorized into four
categories based on population: Category
I (>50,000), Category II (10,000-50,000),
Category III (2,500-10,000), and Category IV
(<2,500).