Army, Yol traders’ dispute reaches Defence Minister

Dispute between the Army authorities and shopkeepers of Yol has reached Union Minister of Defence AK Antony.
According to sources, on petition of the shopkeepers endorsed by the state politicians, the Defence Minister has written to the Chief of Army Staff to look into plausible solution for the problem.
The communication reached the Rising Star Corps authorities here who have stuck to their stand. They maintained that the encroachments on the defence land had to be removed due to security reasons.
The impasse between the Army authorities and certain residents of the Yol area started last year when the Army started raising walls to mark its boundaries.
In this process, many shopkeepers were found to have encroached upon the government land. The Army authorities started the process of evacuating the encroachers from their properties.
However, the shopkeepers had their own logic. They maintained that they had been running shops in the area since long.
Most of their lands had come in the Army area and they were dependent on cantonment for their livelihood.
The shopkeepers alleged that the Army authorities had barred their personnel from buying goods from their shops.
The move is directed at pressurising them to vacate their shops, the shopkeepers alleged. The fact is, however, being denied by the Army authorities.
The residents of Yol have also been at loggerheads with the Army authorities over the alleged blockage of passages to their villages due to walls raised by the Army.
They had also organised protests against this. However, the Army authorities assured them a few passages in the cantonment areas.
Certain villages that also demanded ouster from the Yol cantonment board area were alleging that despite the fact they were carrying agriculture, they were deprived of all schemes floated by state and central government for farmers as on papers they were a part of urban area of the Yol cantonment board.
Now, as the matter of dispute between the locals and the Army authorities of Yol has reached the Union Ministry of Defence what remains to be seen is whether any solution could be found.