Earlier on Sunday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with the three Services chiefs.
New Delhi: Amid massive outrage among military aspirants over the new army recruitment policy, the ministers of the ruling party continue to market the scheme.
The registration process for the first batch of Agniveers will begin on June 24 and the online examination would be held on July 24, said a top military official on Sunday.
Addressing a joint press conference of the tri-services, Air Marshal SK Jha said, “Registration process for the first batch of Agniveers will start from June 24. The phase-I online examination process would start on July 24. The first batch would be enrolled by December and training would commence by December 30.”
“From November 21 this year, the first naval ‘Agniveers’ will start reaching the training establishment INS Chilka, Odisha. Both female and male Agniveers are allowed for this.” Navy Chief of Personnel, Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said.
Additional Secretary Lt Gen Anil Puri, Department of Military Affairs (DMA), Indian Army’s Adjutant General Lt Gen Bansi Ponappa, Indian Navy’s Chief of Personnel Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, and Indian Air Force’s Personnel in-charge Air Marshal SK Jha held a joint press conference on the Agniveer scheme on Sunday
Lt Gen Puri stated that the Centre will start with the recruitment of 46,000 Army aspirants to ‘analyze’ the scheme.
He further said, “In next 4-5 years, our intake (of soldiers) will be 50,000-60,000 & will increase to 90,000 – 1 lakh subsequently. We’ve started small at 46,000 to analyze the scheme…and to build up infra capacity.”
He further said, “Our intake of ‘Agniveers’ will go up to 1.25 lakhs in near future and will not remain at 46,000 which is the present figure.
Earlier on Sunday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with the three Services chiefs.
The Union Cabinet on June 14 approved a recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the three services of the Armed Forces called Agnipath and the candidates selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers.
Under the policy, people between the age bracket of 17.5 years and 21 years will be inducted into the services for a four-year tenure. During this period, they will be paid a monthly salary between ₹ 30,000-40,000 plus allowances, followed by compulsory retirement for most without gratuity and pension benefits.
Following the announcement of the scheme, protests broke out and a tense situation prevailed in various states. The protests took place in several states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Assam so far.
The protests turned violent, which included arson, stone-hurling incidents, and arrests were made.
In Uttar Pradesh, a minimum of 250 people have been arrested and six FIRs were lodged till Friday. One died in Telangana’s Secunderabad district.
Protesters expressed concerns about their future after four-year of contractual employment in the Indian Army, hence, demanding immediate rollback of the scheme.
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