Defence Minister confers top brass from Army, Navy, and Air Force Over ‘Agnipath,’
18 June, 2022 | Riya Girdhar
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, and Vice Chief of Army Staff Gen BS Raju were present at the meeting.
As protests against the ‘Agnipath’ military recruiting plan grew in intensity across the nation, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a conference with the senior brass of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to discuss the overall situation.
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, and Vice Chief of Army Staff Gen BS Raju were present at the meeting.
The meeting’s main goal, according to sources, was to assure a speedy deployment of the ‘Agnipath’ programme as well as strategies to appease the agitators.
Army Chief of Staff Gen Manoj Pande was unable to attend the conference due to a business trip to Hyderabad.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force stated on Friday that they will begin the new model’s registration process next week.
The Indian Air Force will begin the selection process for recruitment under the new plan on June 24, according to Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, while the Army will begin the inaugural exercise within two days, according to the sources.
While the Indian Navy has stated that the recruiting process would begin “very soon,” a top navy officer has stated that the recruitment notification will be issued within a week.
According to senior military sources, the three services expect to deploy the first batches of trainees under the new programme in both operational and non-operational positions by June of next year.
In an effort to appease the protesters, the government raised the maximum age restriction for recruitment under the ‘Agnipath’ plan from 21 to 23 for the year 2022.
The government announced the programme on Tuesday, saying that adolescents aged 17 and a half to 21 years old will be entered for a four-year term, with 25% of them being subsequently conscripted for regular duty.