NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is empowered to make amendments or even change the provisions of the new recruiting scheme Agniveer which with time will be found not suitable.
A source in the MoD said on Thursday, “The Defence Minister is empowered to make amendments or change the provisions of Agniveer to suit the requirements of the services.”
The MoD will not be required to wait for Cabinet approval, which in most other cases is needed, the source added.
There has been a major backlash on the new recruitment policy for the armed forces which the Cabinet on Tuesday approved. On the one hand former officers believe a study or a pilot project should have been done. And, it is going to make a large number of candidates ineligible since they would go overboard with conditions now that all new recruitments will be done through the Agnipath Scheme. Also, the terms of engagement stipulate a contractual induction getting over in four years.
“In case the current provisions will be seen as not leading to the desired results, changes will be introduced, the officer quoted above said, and this may help both services and the candidates.
In no case the number of Agniveers will be more than the 50 per cent of those under the permanent category.
Under it around 46,000 youth between the ages of 17 and a half years and 21 years will be inducted into the Army, Navy and Air Force for a period of four years.
One of the positives of the scheme, as per the MoD, is that this will make the age profile of the Units youthful.
Under the old system, youth between 16 and half years and 21 years were selected for a minimum of 15 years of service and used to get a pension for serving this much. Under the new scheme, 100 per cent of the recruits will leave after four years and then around 25 per cent will be taken back from among them under a fresh process and will serve on a permanent basis. The eligible age will be in the range from 17.5 to 21 years.
Enrolment will be undertaken through an online centralised system for all three services with specialised rallies and campus interviews from recognised technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes and National Skills Qualifications Framework, among others. Enrolment will be based on ‘All India All Class’ basis. Earlier recruitments were based on region as well as caste and used to serve in regiments like Dogra, Punjab, J&K, Rajput, Jat and Sikhs.
Agniveers will meet the medical eligibility conditions laid down for enrolment in the armed forces as applicable to respective categories/trades. The educational qualification for Agniveers will remain in vogue for enrollment in various categories. For example: For entry into General Duty (GD) soldier, the educational qualification is Class 10.