Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Amidst the nationwide protest and violence against the Agnipath scheme, the armed forces have announced to initiate the process for inducting the first batches of Agniveers. The Army will begin the recruitment exercise within two days, according to sources, while selection process for the Indian Air Force will start from June 24. The Navy, too, is likely to start the process within a week. The three Services are planning to deploy the first batches of Agniveer recruits in both operational and non-operational roles by June next year, senior military officials said.
Lending support to the government’s firefighting efforts in the wake of the escalating protests, the three Services chiefs extolled the decision of raising the upper age limit for recruitments this year. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, too, sought to stress upon the age limit relaxation.
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Army Chief General Manoj Pande on Friday said the training of first Agniveers will begin in December and they will be able to join active service by mid-2023. After the initial notification is issued, various agencies and establishments of the Army will come out with details of the induction process, officials said.
Talking about the process to expand the recruitment base, the Army chief said the decision to raise the upper age limit to 23 years for 2022 would permit a larger section of youths to enrol under the new model of recruitment. The one-time waiver will provide an opportunity to those youths who could not join the services due Covid-19 in the last two years. “We call upon our youth to avail this opportunity for joining the Indian Army as Agniveers,” Gen Pande said.
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There were no recruitment drives by the Army in the past two years because of the pandemic. The Navy and Air Force, however, did recruit personnel in the previous two years. Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, too, harped on the decision to grant the one-time concession. “The upper age limit for the first induction has been increased to 23 years and this change would permit a larger section of the youth to enroll as Agniveers,” he said.
Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar admitted that he had not anticipated protests like this. “We worked on the scheme for almost a year-and-a-half… It’s the single biggest human resources management transformation in the Indian military… Protests are happening due to misinformation.”
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Training to start in December Army Chief said the training of first Agniveers will begin in December and they will be able to join active service by mid-2023. After the initial notification is issued, various agencies and establishments of the Army will come out with details of the induction process such as the number of vacancies, location of recruitment rallies and test schedules
