The defence ministry has decided to phase out all British Raj-era military cantonments all over the country.
The first cantonment to go last week was at Yol in Himachal Pradesh and the next in line to go is Nasirabad in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, the last one set up 1962.
There are a total of 62 cantonments in 19 states having a total of 1.6 lakh acres, with a population of 50 lakh military and civilian people. The government issued a notification for Yol last week.
Military area within the cantonment will be converted into military stations
The military area within the cantonment will be converted into military stations and the civil area will be merged with the nearby municipality. The cantonments are independently run by the Centre unlike the municipalities run by the state governments.
The cantonments were established far away from the cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Pune, Kolkata, Ambala and Jalandhar, but the population explosion resulted in them falling into the cities.
