Sir: The major irritants faced by the residents of various cantonment boards are problems created by vested interest lobbies and the nexus of real estate and land mafia tycoons as well as the autocratic monopolistic attitude of the bureaucracy that holds executive assignments. There seems to be no remedy in sight even with the coming elections to existing problems at the cantonment boards, because those who have been given party tickets and been authorised to manage the election campaigns by three major political parties are controversial men. They are notorious for their involvement in land scams, especially the candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Lahore.The residents of Karachi cantonment board and DHA continue to face scarcity of clean water, although they have been forced to pay huge amounts as water charges to the Cantonment Board for decades. The other problem is disappearance of amenity plots. With the connivance of the land mafia and bureaucracy, these plots have been converted into commercial or residential plots.In Lahore and Islamabad, similar problems are being faced by residents of cantonments, who are left at the mercy of powerful land mafias and corrupt officials. The green belts, which for ages were a source of providing fresh vegetables, fruits, milk and meat to residents, are being replaced by concrete jungles with a devastating effect on the environment while the residential population is rising with the criminal conversion of agricultural land belts into real estate plots for the profitable commercial benefits of the few. It is not just private housing societies involved in fleecing citizens, but also controversial DHA Valley in Islamabad among others. RASHID ORAKZAIVia Email