Rajnath Singh again chairs meet with three services chiefs amid Agnipath protests

|HT|

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh is chairing a meet with the three services chief for the second straight day amid the ongoing protests across the country against the Agnipath recruitment scheme. On Saturday, the defence minister had met army chief General Manoj Pande, navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar and IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari as the protests intensified against the new defence recruitment scheme.

The defence minister later announced a ten per cent quota for ‘Agniveers’ in Coast Guard and defence public sector undertakings (DPSU) after the completion of four year service under Agnipath scheme. Similarly, the home ministry has also announced a ten per cent quota in central paramilitary forces (CAPF) and the Assam Rifles. The home ministry also announced a three years' age relaxation beyond the prescribed upper age limit to ‘Agniveers’ for recruitment in the paramilitary forces and the Assam Rifles. For the first batch of ‘Agniveers’, the age relaxation will be for five years beyond the upper age limit.

Several ministries have also announced multiple measures for the 'Agniveers'. Several BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Assam have announced they would give preference to ‘Agniveers’ in state police and other government jobs.

However, violent protests continue across the country. Over 350 trains were cancelled across the country on Saturday. On Friday, protests had led to the cancellation of 200 trains and disruption of 316 trains. At least 14 trains were torched across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana.

The opposition has slammed the Centre over the Agnipath scheme, demanding a rollback as early as possible. The Congress government in Rajasthan ‘unanimously’ passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the scheme.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)