New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday started recruitment process under the Agnipath scheme by opening the registration window. Some 3,800 candidates had registered online by Friday evening, said a senior IAF official. The registration will be on till July 5.
The online exam will be held between July 24 and 31. The provisional select list is expected to be out by December 1. The course will commence on December 30.
The government had said that armed forces will hire 46,000 jawans in the age group of 17.5 to 21 years under Agnipath, the four-year short-term recruitment scheme. Of this, 40,000 will be for the Army and 3,000 each for the IAF and the Navy. In four years, the Army will recruit 1.75 lakh soldiers, Indian Navy 12,500 and Indian Air Force 15,400. From the fifth year the recruitment will be on the basis of personnel released from the service.
The Agniveers would form a distinct rank in the armed forces, different from the existing ranks.
The monthly salary of an ‘Agniveer’ in the first year of employment would be Rs 30,000 and the in-hand amount would be Rs 21,000 as Rs 9,000 would go to a corpus with an equal contribution of the government. Subsequently, the monthly salary in the second, third and fourth year will be Rs 33,000, Rs 36,500 and Rs 40,000.
They will also get applicable hardship and risk allowances. Each ‘Agniveer’ will get an amount of Rs 11.71 lakh as ‘Seva Nidhi Package’ after competion of the four-year term and it will be exempted from income tax. There will be no entitlement to gratuity and pensionary benefits and the new recruits will be provided.
Several parts of the country witnessed violent protests against the scheme. A number of opposition parties and military experts had slammed the scheme, contending it will adversely impact the operational capabilities of the armed forces. The government had on June 16 increased the upper age limit for recruitment under the scheme to 23 years from 21 for 2022.
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