New Delhi: AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday said the JD(U)’s demand for review of Agnipath scheme is “100 per cent correct” and stressed that the scheme should have been withdrawn earlier. Earlier in the day, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi told reporters here that the party has demanded a review of the Agnipath scheme, and will “pursue” the caste census issue. Speaking to PTI Videos, Singh said, “Agniveer is betrayal with Mother India and the Army. The prime minister should have withdrawn it earlier.” “Earlier a jawan was trained for a year but under this scheme (Agnipath), you reduced the training period to six months. Every youth is ready to sacrifice his or her life for the country. But you are weakening the army. This demand from JDU is 100 per cent correct,” the AAP leader added. In June 2022, the government rolled out the Agnipath recruitment scheme for short-term induction of personnel with an aim to bring down the age profile of the three armed services. AllUttar PradeshMaharashtraTamil NaduWest BengalBiharKarnatakaAndhra PradeshTelanganaKeralaMadhya PradeshRajasthanDelhiOther States The scheme provides for recruiting youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
Tag: Agniveer
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Rahul Gandhi is doing ‘deshdroha’, Himanta Sarma’s warning to RaGa over remark on ‘Agniveer’ scheme – The Economic Times Video
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched a no-holds-barred attack on Rahul Gandhi over the Agniveer scheme row on May 27. CM Himanta accused Rahul Gandhi of doing anti-national activity. Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “In the Agniveer scheme first you can work in the Army and then go for State Police job, Corporate job or any other job you like. Youth of our country like Agniveer scheme and that’s why lakhs of candidates are appearing for the interview. Rahul Gandhi can’t be in Army, can’t be Agniveer and can’t earn for himself. He is a burden on his mother. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of lies. That is why Rahul Gandhi should not comment on our army. By commenting against the army, Rahul Gandhi is doing ‘deshdroha’. I warn him against it.”
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Now, online common entrance exam first for Agniveer recruitment process by Army
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The army has announced a change in the Agniveer recruitment process and candidates wanting to join the force will now have to first appear for an online common entrance examination (CEE), followed by physical fitness and medical tests.
While advertisements regarding the change in the process have been put out by the army in various newspapers, sources on Saturday said, the notification for this is expected to be issued around mid-February.
The first online CEE is slated to be held in April at nearly 200 locations across the country and for it all preparations have been finalised, a source said.
“The changed methodology will ensure increased focus on cognitive aspect during selection. It will have wider outreach across the country and also reduce the large crowds seen during recruitment rallies to make them more manageable and easier to conduct,” the source said.
An advertisement published in a leading newspaper with the title — ‘Transformational Changes in Recruitment in Indian Army’ — on Friday, lists the new three-step methodology for the recruitment process.
The first step will be the online CEE for all candidates at nominated centres, followed by physical fitness tests for CEE-qualified candidates during recruitment rallies, and medical tests in the end, it says.
“For the Agniveer recruitment process, earlier, candidates had to undergo a physical fitness test, followed by medical tests, and appearing for the CEE was the last step. But, now, common online CEE is the first step. This will also help is easing the screening process and the logistics involved,” the source said.
The new process will apply to about 40,000 candidates who are willing to join the army from the next recruitment cycle of 2023-24, he said.
NEW DELHI: The army has announced a change in the Agniveer recruitment process and candidates wanting to join the force will now have to first appear for an online common entrance examination (CEE), followed by physical fitness and medical tests.
While advertisements regarding the change in the process have been put out by the army in various newspapers, sources on Saturday said, the notification for this is expected to be issued around mid-February.
The first online CEE is slated to be held in April at nearly 200 locations across the country and for it all preparations have been finalised, a source said.
“The changed methodology will ensure increased focus on cognitive aspect during selection. It will have wider outreach across the country and also reduce the large crowds seen during recruitment rallies to make them more manageable and easier to conduct,” the source said.
An advertisement published in a leading newspaper with the title — ‘Transformational Changes in Recruitment in Indian Army’ — on Friday, lists the new three-step methodology for the recruitment process.
The first step will be the online CEE for all candidates at nominated centres, followed by physical fitness tests for CEE-qualified candidates during recruitment rallies, and medical tests in the end, it says.
“For the Agniveer recruitment process, earlier, candidates had to undergo a physical fitness test, followed by medical tests, and appearing for the CEE was the last step. But, now, common online CEE is the first step. This will also help is easing the screening process and the logistics involved,” the source said.
The new process will apply to about 40,000 candidates who are willing to join the army from the next recruitment cycle of 2023-24, he said.
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Second Agniveer batch recruitment to begin soon, process changed
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The second phase of recruitment of Agniveers for the armed forces, under the central government’s Agnipath scheme, is about to begin, but this time an amended procedure will be put in place. The decision has been taken to prevent crowding at the exam centres which may lead to chaos.
Online applications for registration for the test will be available from mid-February for a period of one month, sources confirmed on Saturday. An online Common Entrance Exam (CEE) will be held prior to the physical tests and medical exam. For the recruitment of the first batch of Agniveers, held in June last year, the physical tests and the medical exam were conducted first.
“The first online CEE is scheduled to be held in April 2023 at approximately 200 locations pan-India, for which all preparations have been finalised,” according to a source.
The change in the process will ensure an increased focus on cognitive aspects during selection, official sources said. “It will have a wider outreach across the country and also reduce the large crowds seen during recruitment rallies, in order to make them more manageable,” a source said.
The government announced the Agnipath Scheme in June last year to recruit personnel to the ‘other ranks’ (soldiers, sailors and airmen). Under the scheme, youth will be inducted into the armed forces initially for four years.
Once the four-year service is over, all of them will have to leave and a re-induction process will be held to take in 25% of them to serve as a permanent cadre of the forces.
NEW DELHI: The second phase of recruitment of Agniveers for the armed forces, under the central government’s Agnipath scheme, is about to begin, but this time an amended procedure will be put in place. The decision has been taken to prevent crowding at the exam centres which may lead to chaos.
Online applications for registration for the test will be available from mid-February for a period of one month, sources confirmed on Saturday. An online Common Entrance Exam (CEE) will be held prior to the physical tests and medical exam. For the recruitment of the first batch of Agniveers, held in June last year, the physical tests and the medical exam were conducted first.
“The first online CEE is scheduled to be held in April 2023 at approximately 200 locations pan-India, for which all preparations have been finalised,” according to a source.
The change in the process will ensure an increased focus on cognitive aspects during selection, official sources said. “It will have a wider outreach across the country and also reduce the large crowds seen during recruitment rallies, in order to make them more manageable,” a source said.
The government announced the Agnipath Scheme in June last year to recruit personnel to the ‘other ranks’ (soldiers, sailors and airmen). Under the scheme, youth will be inducted into the armed forces initially for four years.
Once the four-year service is over, all of them will have to leave and a re-induction process will be held to take in 25% of them to serve as a permanent cadre of the forces.
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Delhi High Court to hear pleas challenging Centre’s Agnipath Scheme on July 20
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Tuesday said it would hear on July 20 several pleas challenging the Centre’s Agnipath Scheme.
The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for the recruitment of youths in the defence forces Army between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
Protests have erupted in several states against the scheme. Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.
The high court on Tuesday was hearing an application filed in a pending petition which challenges the Indian Navy’s employment advertisement reserving its right for shortlisting applicants by increasing the cut-off marks obtained by them in class 12th examination, contrary to the already laid down eligibility criteria in the advertisement, after their applications were received for recruitment as Person Below Officer Rank (PBOR) in the force.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that similar matters challenging the Agnipath scheme are already pending before the high court and they be heard together, The bench directed that all such petitions be listed together on July 20.
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Defence minister Rajnath Singh briefs MPs on ‘Agnipath’ scheme, some seek rollback
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh gave a presentation to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence members on the “Agnipath” scheme for military recruitment on Monday, with some opposition MPs demanding its immediate withdrawal.
After the nearly-two-hour meeting addressed by the defence minister and the three chiefs of the armed forces, opposition MPs, including those from the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), raised objections to the new recruitment scheme and said it should be rolled back.
Sources said Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil cited the criticism of the scheme by experts and decorated soldiers and said it should be withdrawn as it would affect the morale of the forces and create confusion.
He said the scheme should first be launched as a pilot project and those trained be recruited in the armed forces. It should only be introduced after working out various modalities, Gohil added.
The Congress leader was supported by NCP MP Supriya Sule and TMC MP Saugata Roy.
They also gave a written document to the defence minister, seeking the withdrawal of the scheme, but Congress MP Manish Tewari did not sign it.
Tewari has publicly lauded the Agnipath scheme, saying it is a much-needed reform as the armed forces of various other countries have introduced such a scheme.
The presentation was aimed at addressing the concerns of the opposition leaders ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, starting July 18.
After briefing the MPs in the committee, the defence minister, the three service chiefs and the defence secretary answered several queries raised by them.
After the unveiling of the scheme on June 14, violent protests against it were reported from several states for nearly a week and various opposition parties had demanded its rollback.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) recently said it has received around 7.5 lakh applications under the scheme. The registration process began on June 24.
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Around 20 per cent of naval ‘Agniveers’ this year will be women
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Around 20 per cent of the ‘Agniveers’ to be inducted by the Indian Navy this year will be women, Navy officials said on Tuesday.
The Navy plans to recruit about 3,000 personnel this year under the ‘Agnipath’ recruitment scheme and has started the registration process for the aspirants on July 1.
The Navy will recruit women sailors for the first time through the new scheme. “Twenty per cent of the naval Agniveers will be women subject to their meeting required criteria,” said a senior Navy official.
The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, seeks to recruit youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years to 21 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
For 2022, the upper age limit has been extended to 23 years. Under the scheme, the three services are set to recruit 46,000 personnel this year and the number is going to increase in the coming years.
The Navy has already announced that the application window would be available from July 15 to 30 and examination and physical fitness tests would be held in mid-October.
It said the first batch of recruits will join the training programme at INS Chilka in Odisha by November 21. There were violent protests for days in many parts of the country after the new military recruitment model was unveiled. The Supreme Court is likely to hear next week the pleas challenging the ‘Agnipath’ scheme.
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Tejashwi makes fresh bid to fish in NDA’s troubled waters as he questions ramped up security in state BJP offices
By PTI
PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday made a fresh attempt at fishing in the NDA’s troubled waters in Bihar by questioning the manner in which security for the BJP’s leaders and offices were ramped up in the state in the wake of violent protests against ‘Agnipath’ scheme.
The leader of the opposition came out with a series of tweets accusing BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi, MPs and MLAs, who have been given Y category security, of having no faith in their own double engine government but staying in a coalition with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) just for the sake of power.
Yadav also alleged that deployment of central paramilitary forces at BJP offices was made without taking the state government into confidence and was tantamount to assault on the federal structure.
BJP offices were torched in more than one districts and houses and cars of Renu Devi, besides party’s state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal and a couple of other MLAs were vandalised during the protests against ‘Agnipath’, the new scheme of recruitment in the armed forces.
The BJP was obviously flabbergasted by the scale and intensity of the protests and contention of the JD(U) that these were spontaneous and not part of a planned conspiracy as suggested by the saffron party, had placed the ties between the two parties under strain.
There have been rumours, neither confirmed nor denied by leaders of the JD(U) or the administration, that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre decided to give Y category security to 10 Bihar leaders and deploy personnel of central paramilitary forces at party offices, including the state headquarters here, without consulting the chief minister who also holds the home portfolio.
Notably, Kumar himself has so far not spoken about ‘Agnipath’, which has come in for criticism by his close aides like JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Prasad Singh and parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha.
However, a visit to his residence recently by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later also declared that the chief minister was NDA’s undisputed leader in Bihar and will complete his five-year-term, was seen as an assuaging tactic by the central BJP leadership which may not like the JD(U), currently its largest ally in the country, to be estranged at this point.
A softening of stance on part of the JD(U) was apparent during the recently concluded monsoon session of the assembly and ministers belonging to the party criticised, in unison with their BJP colleagues, the opposition’s ruckus over ‘Agnipath’.
Nonetheless, Yadav, who has been buoyant over his party becoming the single largest group with four MLAs of the AIMIM joining the RJD, has indicated that he will not be sitting on his laurels and continue to keep the ruling NDA, whom he has repeatedly accused of achieving power through backdoor, on its toes.
The Bihar government should tell us whether the police is so incompetent so as to warrant deployment of central forces at BJP offices?, tweeted Yadav, in a deft attempt to provoke the JD(U).
“Did the Centre not attack the federal structure by deploying central forces without taking the state government into confidence,” he asked.
“BJP leaders in Bihar have taken ‘Y’ category security because they do not trust their own double engine government in the state, the home department here and the police.
Are these shameless (begairat) and corrupt (bhrasht) people in power just to loot the people?, asked the former Deputy CM in yet another tweet.
The term “double engine” is used by BJP leaders to refer to the party being in power at the Centre as well as in a state.
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‘Centre must extend retirement age of Agniveers to 65 years’: Mamata urges Modi government
By PTI
BURDWAN: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the Centre to extend the retirement age of soldiers recruited under the Agnipath scheme to 65 years, contending that they will stare at an uncertain future at the end of the four-year term.
Banerjee also said the BJP-led central government launched the new defence recruitment scheme keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“My motto is to create more and more jobs unlike the BJP. They are training people for four months and recruiting them for four years. What will these soldiers do after four years? What will be their fate? It’s uncertain. We demand that the retirement age be extended to 65 years (under the Agnipath scheme),” Banerjee said at an event here.
It envisages recruiting in the armed forces youths in the age bracket of 17-and-half to 21 years for only four years, with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
For 2022, the upper age limit has been extended to 23 years.
Banerjee had earlier claimed that the BJP was using the scheme to build its own armed cadre base.
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If Agniveers don’t get pension, why should public representatives: BJP MP Varun Gandhi
By PTI
PILIBHIT: In his fresh criticism of the Centre’s ‘Agnipath’ scheme, BJP MP Varun Gandhi Friday said if those recruited in the armed forces under this initiative are not eligible for a pension, then why should public representatives get this post-retirement benefit.
Gandhi has been questioning the ‘Agnipath’ scheme since it was unveiled on June 14 by the Centre. The scheme envisages recruiting young soldiers on a contractual basis for four years and retire 75 per cent of them without pension and health benefits.
अल्पावधि की सेवा करने वाले अग्निवीर पेंशन के हकदार नही हैं तो जनप्रतिनिधियों को यह ‘सहूलियत’ क्यूँ?राष्ट्ररक्षकों को पेन्शन का अधिकार नही है तो मैं भी खुद की पेन्शन छोड़ने को तैयार हूँ।क्या हम विधायक/सांसद अपनी पेन्शन छोड़ यह नही सुनिश्चित कर सकते कि अग्निवीरों को पेंशन मिले?
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) June 24, 2022
However, it assures them of an exit package of Rs 11.70 lakh. “If Agniveers who serve for a short period of time are not entitled to a pension, then why this ‘facility’ should be for public representatives? If those who protect the country do not have the right to pension then I am also ready to forego mine,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.“Can we, the MLA/sMPs, give up our pension to ensure that Agniveers get a pension,” he said. Earlier, he had extended support to students protesting against the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme, but had urged them to follow the path of non-violence.