JOIN USNitish asked to oppose ASC shift to Bangalore
The minister, who represents the Gaya Assembly seat, has also asked all MPs from Bihar to take up the issue with Defence Minister A K Antony as its shifting “will have adverse economic and social consequences for the Magadh region.”
The ASC Centre (North) has been functioning in Gaya since 1974, but on August 17, 2010, Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh announced that it would be shifted to Bangalore. To compensate Bihar, the Army eventually decided to open an Officers' Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya.
“A few months ago, a team of the Defence Ministry had come to discuss the matter. The Army representatives said that Gaya would get an OTA in place of the ASC. But you had said that the establishment of the OTA was welcome, but there was no need to shift the ASC. You had also assured the defence team that the government would make additional land available for the OTA,” the minister said in his letter to Nitish.
Army sources, however, said that the process to shift the ASC was already underway.
“In fact the shifting of the ASC to Bangalore and the establishment of the OTA in Gaya are inter-linked,” said Brig SK Yadav, Commander, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar sub-area.
Sources said the proposed OTA would be developed on a sprawling campus of 600 acres, which now is under the Army wing of ASC (North).
“The OTA in Gaya will be second in the country (after Chennai) where Short Service Commission (SSC) officers will be imparted training,” the source added.