The directors-general of three central armed police forces — the CISF, BSF and the RPF — on Thursday night announced a 10 per cent reservation for former Agniveers for posts of constables in their respective forces in line with a decision taken by the Union home ministry last year.
The announcement by the three chiefs of central armed forces came amid a fresh spotlight on the controversial Agnipath scheme for short-term induction of personnel in the army, navy and air force.
In the recently concluded parliamentary session, the Opposition cornered the government over the Agnipath scheme, with the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, accusing the Centre of creating two sets of soldiers and termed the Agniveers as “use-and-throw labourers”.
The Opposition demanded the scrapping of the controversial military recruitment scheme.
Under the Agnipath scheme, soldiers known as Agniveers are recruited in the army, air force and navy for four years and are not entitled to gratuity and pension benefits. After the completion of four years of service, 75 per cent of them will be demobilised and the rest will be retained in the regular cadre, based on merit and organisational requirement.
Before this scheme, a fit general-duty soldier had to serve 15-18 years.
“The Union home ministry had taken an important decision regarding the recruitment of ex-Agniveers. Accordingly, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is also preparing the process of the recruitment of ex-Agniveers. Ten per cent of jobs will be reserved for ex-Agniveers in all future appointments of constables,” CISF director-general Nina Singh said.
The Agnipath scheme was launched in June 2022. Later in the wake of the
violent protests across the country by job aspirants against the scheme, the home ministry had rushed to announce an additional 10 per cent job reservations
for Agnipath recruits who would be demobilised after four years.
“This is very good for the BSF as we are getting trained soldiers. After short training, they will be deployed along the border. 10 per cent of the total vacancies will be reserved for them,” BSF director-general Nitin Agrawal said on Thursday.