During the announcement of the Agnipath scheme, many journalists started questioning Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pandey and Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar. Meanwhile, Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had to intervene. Interrupting, he said that just look at the sky. You guys are limiting yourself.
Actually, this whole incident is of Tuesday (June 14, 2022). It happened that during the announcement of the scheme, the Defense Minister appeared in a light mood. After telling about the plan, the journalists were directly asking questions to General Pandey or Admiral Kumar. In the last 10 minutes of the press conference that lasted for about an hour, Singh intervened and signaled to the journalists to ask questions to the Air Force Chief as well.
Rajnath said, “Look at the sky as well. I see that you people have limited yourself only to land (army) and water (navy).” A few minutes later, the Union Minister was asked what would happen if India’s neighboring countries had such a plan? Singh replied – We have not tried to imitate anyone… Those who try to increase their intelligence by copying, their face gets spoiled.
The Center has overhauled the decades-old defense recruitment process to meet the future security challenges facing the country. Under the ‘Agneepath’ scheme related to the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and Air Force, the recruitment of soldiers will be done on contract basis for a short period of four years. On a major change in the decades-old selection process to recruit more qualified and young soldiers, the ministry said that under the scheme, 46,000 soldiers would be recruited in the three services this year and the eligibility age for selection would be between 17.5 years and 21 years. And they will be named ‘Agniveer’.
The monthly salary of an ‘Agniveer’ in the first year of employment would be Rs 30,000, but only Rs 21,000 in hand. Every month Rs 9,000 will go to a fund with equal contribution from the government. After this, the monthly salary in the second, third and fourth years will be Rs 33,000, Rs 36,500 and Rs 40,000. Every ‘Agniveer’ will get an amount of Rs 11.71 lakh as ‘Service Fund Package’ and will be exempted from income tax. The objective of this scheme is to reduce the increasing salary and pension expenditure of the Defense Department.
This recruitment will be done on “All India, All Category” basis. This will change the composition of many regiments that recruit youth from communities such as Rajputs, Jats and Sikhs, apart from recruiting from specific regions. Based on the organizational requirement and policies of the Army as declared by the Armed Forces from time to time, ‘Agniveer’ will be provided an opportunity to apply for permanent enrollment in the Armed Forces on completion of four years of service. A provision has been made in the scheme to retain 25 percent soldiers from each batch for regular service.
“UGC will work to identify the youth in the scheme”: The University Grants Commission (UGC) will work towards identifying the skills acquired by the recruits under the ‘Agneepath’ scheme of the armed forces, so that they will be able to join the graduate program. can be assessed. UGC President Jagdish Kumar said this on Tuesday. Kumar said, “Agneepath is a big scheme for the youth of India to become a part of the armed forces. It gives them an opportunity to serve our country while acquiring various skills and an Agniveer Skills Certificate.