Vijay Mohan,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, December 20

Most cantonment boards have failed to fulfil their stipulated mandate of executing government schemes and providing the required civic amenities to residents in these areas.A test check of 17 cantonment boards (CBs) by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed that during 2009-14, barring one board, none of the 17 CBs had prepared and implemented town planning schemes, plans for economic development and social justice in their respective areas.There are 62 cantonments located in 19 states across the country. The main functions of these are broadly the same as those of municipal bodies in towns.Section 62 of the Cantonments Act 2006 stipulates that it shall be the duty of every board to make reasonable provisions for civic amenities in their areas. The CB is headed by a chief executive officer, who is independent of the Army and is the civil executive interface of the civil population.None of the CBs provided all 24 types of civic services, mandated under the Cantonments Act, to its residents and no central government schemes applicable in the CBs for uplift of the poor and provision of infrastructure facilities were implemented in the cantonments.The CAG, in its latest report, has also pointed out that the position regarding revenue generation was also not encouraging as the CBs were unable to optimize revenue generation through taxes and non-taxes, leading to their increased dependency on grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Defence.This, CAG observed, was mainly due to non-revision of taxes every five years, recovery of property tax at a lower than the stipulated rate and non-levy of vehicle entry tax and various other factors.

Schemes fail to take off

• A Comptroller and Auditor General report says barring one of 17 boards examined, none had prepared or implemented town planning schemes, plans for economic development and social justice
• There are 62 cantonments across 19 states and function just like municipal bodies in towns
• The boards are responsible for making provisions for civic amenities in their areas
• But none of these provided all 24 types of civic services, mandated under the Cantonments Act, to its residents, said the report