11 June : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday shot off a letter to Defence Minister A K Antony in protest against the decision to transfer Army Service Corps (ASC) centre from Gaya to Bengaluru, saying the move would be a great injustice to the people of the state.
"While Karnataka has several defence units, Bihar has only two army establishments — a sub area headquarter at Danapaur and an ASC centre at Gaya. The centre at Gaya provides great psychological support to the people of the area. Therefore, its shifting to Bengaluru would be a great injustice to the people of the state," Kumar said in his letter.
Since the centre provides employment to a large number of people, its shifting would deprive many of their livelihood, Kumar said.Stating that Bihar was prone to natural disasters like perennial floods and large part of it being falling under seismic zone four and five, the Chief Minister said the Gaya centre was designated as a response centre to support the state administration during such disasters.
Therefore, shifting of the centre will deprive the state of the services of professional disaster response force in the event of a natural calamity, he said.