New Delhi:
Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande on Friday informed that the first training under ‘Agnipath Yojana’ will start in December 2022 while the active service will commence in the middle of 2023. The Centre is yet to announce the official date of commencement of the Agnipath scheme.
The Indian Army chief said, “Recruitment process is going to begin soon. Within the next two days, a notification will be issued on the official website. After that our Army recruitment organisations will declare a detailed schedule of registration and rally…”
“As far as the question of Agniveers going to recruitment training centres is concerned, the training of first Agniveers will begin this December (in 2022) at the centres. The active service will commence in the middle of 2023,” he added.
Notably, COVID-19 halted the Army’s recruitment for over two years. In 2019-2020, the Army recruited jawans and there has been no entry since then. On the other hand, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force had both recruited in the last two years respectively.
This comes amid a nation-wide agitation against the new Army recruitment scheme. Hundreds of aspirants on Friday distrupted rail services and road traffic in various parts of the country.
On Friday, one person was killed while eight others were seriously injured when police opened fire to disperse an angry mob at Telangana’s Secunderabad railway station in protest of the Union Defense Ministry’s new ‘Agnipath’ scheme.
Hundreds of candidates vying for army recruitment exams ransacked Telangana’s main railway station. The injured were taken to Secunderabad’s Gandhi Hospital.
The Ministry of Defence, in its statement on Tuesday, said that the Agnipath scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces. It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society.
It is envisaged that the average age profile of the Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by the implementation of this scheme. The nation stands to immensely benefit from the infusion of highly inspired youth with a deeper understanding of self-discipline, diligence and focus who would be adequately skilled and will be able to contribute in other sectors.
This is a major defence policy reform introduced by the Government to usher in a new era in the Human Resource policy of the three Services. The policy, which comes into immediate effect, will hereafter govern the enrolment for the three services.
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