‘Army Training Command to stay in Shimla’

SHIMLA: Speculations about shifting of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) headquarters from Shimla to Meerut have come to an end with defence minister Rajnath Singh saying that there was no such plan. Former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had written a letter to the defence minister on June 21 on the issue. In his reply, Singh said that no proposal on the matter was under consideration in his ministry.
Earlier, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Union minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur had also written to the defence ministry on same issue.
Shimla has been a strategic location of the Indian Army for almost 150 years and was the headquarters of the British Indian Army during from 1864 to 1939, which included the two World Wars. After India’s independence, the headquarters of the Western Command was in Shimla during the Indo-Pak war in 1948, 1965 and 1971, as well as the India-China war of 1962. The Western Command was shifted to Chandimandir only in 1985.
“I had made a representation to Union defence minister after employees and residents of Shimla told me about the proposal to shift ARTRAC. I had told the minister about the historic significance of Shimla, now I have been informed by Rajnath Singh that there is no such proposal,” Dhumal said.