Agnipath: ‘Quota of states to stay intact’

CHANDIGARH: Western Army Commander Lieutenant General Nav K Khanduri on Wednesday made it clear that the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh would continue get it same share in the vacancies in the Army under the newly introduced “Agnipath” scheme. Lt Gen Khanduri was interacting with media persons at the command headquarters to discuss the new scheme.
Other top officials of the Western command, who were present on the occasion, also clarified that the recruitment of soldiers, which has been on halt for almost more than two years, would commence in the next 90 days. The Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are the largest contributors into the armed forces. As per the data placed before the parliament in March last year, with 89,088 soldiers from the state, Punjab is second highest in the country after Uttar Pradesh in terms of share of soldiers. With 65,987 soldiers, the tiny state Haryana accounts for 5.7% of the rank. With 46,960 active duty soldiers, Himachal also has a major share into the forces despite being a small hill state. The youngsters in the region are worried about their vacancies and other conditions of recruitment under the new scheme.
Sharing more details about the army’s “Agnipath” scheme, the army commander said that the average age profile of Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by implementation of this scheme. As of now such age is 32-34 years, which may come down to 24-26 years in future.
When asked about the negative impact of scheme in case the well trained youngsters are released only after four years of service, Gen Khanduri said that there are lakhs of ex-servicemen in the country and they never took the path of violence or anti-social stance. I would say, Agniveers , on completion of the four year tenure in the prime of their youth , will be mature and self - disciplined with the realization to become better version of himself herself both professionally as also personally,” Gen Khanduri added.
On shorter duration of training, the army commander said that several leading armies of the world also have a smaller tenure of training for its soldiers and it does not have any impact on the forces.
Regarding resentment by some veterans over the scheme, the army commander said that they would have any grouse after 4-5 months when they would actually came to know this concept.
Maj Gen Gurvir Singh Kahlon, Maj Gen Incharge Administration also gave detail information about this scheme, benefits to the army aspirants and the remuneration etc. He clarified that the recruitment would be held through the same Branch Recruiting Offices (BROs) and Zonal Recruiting Offices (ZROs) of the army through an online centralized system for all three services with specialized rallies and campus interviews from recognized technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes and National Skills Qualifications Framework , among others .