Context: Recently, the Center has decided to reduce the land jurisdiction of 10 key cantonment boards across five states and transfer them to state local bodies.

• Military areas within cantonments will be transformed into "exclusive military stations" under complete army control.

• Any objection to the above declaration by any inhabitant of a cantonment may be submitted to the Central Government through the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC), within eight weeks from the date of publication of this notification.

Need for such step

• It is not the job of the Armed Forces and Indian Defence Estates Service officers to run municipalities.

• A need was felt to exclude certain areas from the limits of the cantonment boards and merge them with the elected urban local bodies.

• This is the first time that an excision of this scale is being undertaken. In the last seven decades, only partial excisions were undertaken in five cantonment boards — Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Agra, Jhansi and Ambala in the 1950s and 1960s.

• The last such exercise was carried out in 1986, when some areas of Khasyol cantonment board in Dharamshala, in Himachal Pradesh, were removed.

Reason behind this move

• The move is part of the Prime Minister's plan to "undo the colonial legacy" and introduce various governance reforms.

• Previously, civilians in cantonments lacked access to state government welfare schemes via municipalities, but now they'll be able to avail them.

• Cantonments have become unmanageable, leading to conflicts between military and civilian residents.

Key Benefits

• This step will ease strain on the defense budget by reducing the need for developing and maintaining civilian areas within cantonments.

• The Army will be able to focus on the development of military stations "excised" out of cantonments, strengthen their security, simplify their land management and prevent encroachments.

• Civilians who were not getting access to state government welfare schemes through the municipal corporations and municipalities will be able to avail the schemes after civilian areas become part of the local bodies.

About Cantonment Boards

• Set up for the civilian population residing in cantonment areas, it is created and managed by the central government.

• It refers to  an organization which is established to administer and manage the civilian population living in cantonment areas.

• For every cantonment there shall be a Cantonment Board. 

• Every Board shall be deemed to be a municipality under clause (e) of article 243P of the Constitution for the purposes of-

• (a) receiving grants and allocations; or 

• (b) implementing the Central Government schemes of social welfare, public health, hygiene, safety, water supply, sanitation, urban renewal and education.

• The board operates in accordance with the provisions of the Cantonment Act of 2006 and falls under the jurisdiction of the Union Defence Ministry. 

• It  comprises elected representatives as well as ex-officio and nominated members as per the Cantonments Act, 2006.

• A cantonment board consists of eight elected members, three nominated military members, three ex-officio members (station commander, garrison engineer and senior executive medical officer), and one representative of the district magistrate.

• The cantonment boards are managed by GOCs, Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) officers, state bureaucrats, and a few elected members

• The station commander of the cantonment is the ex-officio president of the board.

• An officer of the Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) or Defence Estates Organisation is the chief executive officer and member-secretary of the board.

• The term of office of a member of a board is five years.

Cantonments are divided into four categories, namely,

• Category I cantonments are those with populations above 50,000;

• Category II between 10,000 and 50,000;

• Category III between 2,500 and 10,000,

• Category IV with populations below 2,500.

• Of these, only Babina Cantonment and Ajmer Cantonment were established after independence.

• Of the 61 cantonment boards in the country, only six were established after independence — Jammu in 1954, Badami Bagh in 1954, Morar in 1956, Dehu Road in 1958, Babina in 1959, and Ajmer in 1962.

Cantonment Board and Military Station

• A cantonment board is a civic administration body notified under the Cantonments Act, 2006, and functions like a municipal body. While it is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence, it can include civilian inhabitants.

• On the other hand, a military station is built solely for the Armed Forces, and does not include civilian inhabitants. Under the administration of the Armed Forces, the Cantonment Act does not apply to military stations.