After Bihar, UP erupts over 'Agnipath' scheme; Yogi says will prioritise 'Agniveers' for police jobs

LUCKNOW: With the protests against newly announced military recruitment scheme ‘Agnipath’ spreading across at least 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi Adityanath, on Thursday, appealed the youth not to get misguided over the issue and grab the opportunity to serve Mother India.

Taking to the Twitter, the CM shared a post reassuring the protesting youth of that the new scheme would add a new dimension to their life. “Young comrades, Agneepath Yojana' will give a new dimension to your life as well as give a golden foundation to the future. Don't be deceived. Our 'Agniveer', determined to serve Maa Bharati, will be an invaluable fund of the nation and the UP government will give preference to Agniveers in police and other services,” tweeted the CM.

युवा साथियो,

'अग्निपथ योजना' आपके जीवन को नए आयाम प्रदान करने के साथ ही भविष्य को स्वर्णिम आधार देगी। आप किसी बहकावे में न आएं।

माँ भारती की सेवा हेतु संकल्पित हमारे 'अग्निवीर' राष्ट्र की अमूल्य निधि होंगे व @UPGovt अग्निवीरों को पुलिस व अन्य सेवाओं में वरीयता देगी।

जय हिंद

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) June 16, 2022

After CM Yogi’s tweet that the youth recruited by the special scheme - 'Agniveers' - will be prioritized for jobs in the UP police, criticism started pouring from various quarters.

The Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati launched an attack on the government over the scheme. Even Mayawati asked the Centre to withdraw the proposed recruitment scheme calling it ‘unfair’.

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While raising concerns over the proposed short term recruitment, Akhilesh Yadav stressed that national security needed long-term solutions. “National security is not a short term and informal issue. It requires very serious and long term solutions. The careless attitude of the centre towards army recruitment will prove detrimental to the future of the nation and its youth,” tweeted Akhilesh.

Similarly, earlier in the day, Mayawati had called the scheme "unfair" while posting a series of tweets, calling for the government's attention.

"After keeping the army recruitment pending for a long time, the Centre has now announced the new scheme 'Agniveer' with a short duration of four years in the Army," Mayawati posted on twitter. She added: “Even though it has been called an attractive scheme, the youths of the country are dissatisfied and annoyed. They are openly opposing the change in army recruitment system,” she wrote in another post in Hindi.

"They believe that the government is limiting the soldiers’ tenure to four years in order to eliminate pension benefits in the army and government jobs, which is grossly unfair and deleterious to the future of rural youth and their families," she added.

The former chief ministers' tweets came at a time when neighbouring Bihar is witnessing huge protests over the schemes and the fire of unrest is spreading fast to other states as well.

In UP, the districts in the grip of protests included Bareilly, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Agra, Aligarh, Unnao, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, PRayagraj and Mathura. Youth took to streets to lodge massive protest againstthe proposed scheme and demanding its withdrawal.