Centre clears ‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruitment of youth in armed forces

The three Indian Armed Forces--Army, Navy, and Air Force unveiled a new defence recruitment model called 'Agnipath' (also referred to as tour of duty in the past) on Tuesday. The service chiefs of all the armed forces gave detail about the new recruitment policies.

The Agnipath model envisages the recruitment of personnel below officer rank (PBOR) in the Army, Air Force, and Navy for four years, including six months of training.

“The Cabinet Committee on Security has taken a historic decision today to approve the transformative scheme of 'Agnipath'. Under this, Indian youth would be granted an opportunity to get inducted into the Armed services,” the defence minister said.

Army chief General Manoj Pande, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari and Navy chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar were present during the announcement of the defence recruitment scheme.

“Under the 'Agnipath' scheme, efforts are to create a youthful profile of the Armed forces. It would help to train them for new technologies & also improve their health levels. This scheme will increase employment opportunities with new skills in different sectors,” the minister added.

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“The recruitment model is based on all-India merit-based selection process. We are looking at the best to serve the armed forces between the ages of 17.5 to 21 years. Once selected, ‘Agniveers’ will serve for 4 years with us,” Lt Gen Anil Puri, Additional Secretary, Dept of Military Affairs, said.

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh minister and Congress leader TS Singhdeo on Tuesday questioned the Central government's Agnipath recruitment scheme under which 10 lakh government jobs will be provided in the next 1.5 years.

Singhdeo asked, "Defence services and national security
are being toyed with. Experts, who were chiefs of defence forces, opine that it takes at least 8 years to prepare youth for deployment on borders. What do they want to gain with 4 years of training?"

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