Shillong, June 15: A day after the Union Cabinet approved the attractive recruitment scheme of ‘Agnipath’ for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal DK Patnaik, on Wednesday informed that the first recruitment rally would take place in about 90 days from the official announcement by the Union Cabinet.
The Union Cabinet had cleared the ‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruitment of youth in the Armed Forces on June 14.
Lauding the new initiative the AOC-in-C Air Marshal Patnaik opined that this would be “a win-win-win situation” – a win for the Armed forces, a win for the Cadet and a win for the Country.
The AGNIPATH scheme allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years. Soldiers who are recruited under this scheme will be known as Agniveers, forming a distinct rank in the three services and wearing a specific insignia as part of their uniform. The average age for recruitment is 17.5 years to 21 years and a total of 46,000 Agniveers are to be recruited this year.
“…89 days from now the first recruitment rally will take place. Approximately 180 days from now, the first of the recruits will be in our training centres. Approximately a year from now, we’ll have the first of the Agniveers coming into the battalions,” the Air Marshal Patnaik said.
He informed that these recruits will be selected pan-India and will go through six months of training. Thereafter they’ll serve for 3.5 years.
“At the end of 4 years, we’re looking at retaining 25% of the people who we think have the attitude and aptitude to stay in the Army. Then we release the balance of 75%” he further said.
“The Agnivereers will receive an attractive monthly package with Risk & Hardship allowances as applicable in the three Services, One time ‘Seva Nidhi’ package of 11 lakhs to be paid to Agniveers upon completion of engagement period of four years,” he explained.
According to Air Marshal DK Patnaik, the impact of Agnipath would be in terms of giving the Indian Army the opportunity to get younger, fitter and probably more tech-savvy recruits. “For technical arms, we’ll look forward to recruiting people already qualified in skill sets required for the Indian Army. We’ll tap the resources of ITI, polytechnics so that when we get them into the Army, the requirement for subsequent training is reduced,” he added.
