Additional Secretary Lt Gen Anil Puri, Department of Military Affairs (DMA), said, “There will be no rollback of the Agnipath scheme. Why should it be rolled back? It is the only progressive step to make the country young.”
At a press conference, Puri said: “Indian Army’s foundation is the discipline. (There’s) No space for arson, or vandalism. Police verification is 100%, and no one can join without that. And, if any FIR is lodged against them, they can’t join…They (aspirants) will be asked to write as part of the enrollment form that they were not part of any arson…their police verification will be done.”
The Army, Navy and the Air Force also came out with a broad schedule for the recruitment of soldiers under the scheme while asserting that it was being implemented to bring down the age profile of the armed forces. Air Marshal SK Jha said, “Agniveer batch number 1 registration process will start from June 24 and from July 24. Phase 1 online examination process will start. The first batch would be enrolled by December and training would commence by December 30.”
Lt Gen Bansi Ponappa, Indian Army, said, “By December first week, we will get the first batch of 25,000 Agniveers, and the second batch would be inducted around February 2023 making it 40,000”.
Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said the Indian Navy would induct women personnel as well through the Agnipath scheme.
“The Indian Navy has 30 women officers at present sailing on different Indian Navy ships. We have decided that under the Agnipath scheme, we will recruit women also. They will be deployed on warships also,” he added. From November 21 this year, the first naval Agniveers will start reaching the training establishment INS Chilka, Odisha.
Puri said that reducing the age profile of the three services has been on the table for some time and even the Kargil Review committee had made observations on it.
The defence ministry said it would, in future, increase the intake of Agniveers to up to 1.25 lakh. “Our intake of Agniveers will go up to 1.25 lakh in the near future and will not remain at 46,000 which is the present figure,” Puri said during the press briefing. The Centre, this year, plans to recruit 46,000 Agniveers.
“In the next 4-5 years, our intake (of soldiers) will be 50,000-60,000 and will increase to 90,000-1 lakh subsequently. We’ve started small at 46,000 to analyse the scheme…,” he stated.
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