Three army recruitment rallies under Agnipath scheme in Punjab during next two months

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, July 20

With enrolment into the armed forces under the recently introduced Agnipath scheme taking off, the Army has firmed up plans to conduct three recruitment rallies in Punjab in the initial phase.

These rallies are scheduled to be held at Ludhiana in August and at Patiala and Gurdaspur in September, covering 14 districts of Punjab, for which the application process is underway.

While the Army has not disclosed the number of soldiers to be enrolled from Punjab in the current recruitment year, officials estimate the total number of vacancies allocated to the state under the Agnipath scheme to be 3,500-4,000.

Regular intake of soldiers is resuming after a gap of over two years. Most of the recruitment process had been suspended when lockdown was enforced in March 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The applications will be received till July 30 for the rally at Ludhiana and till August 3 for the other two rallies. The recruitment authorities are expecting a higher influx of applicants given the two-year hiatus.

According to army officers, Lt Gen NS Sarna, Director General Recruiting at Army Headquarters had visited some locations in the Western Command earlier this month to review preparations for recruitment and ensure effective implementation of procedures under the Agnipath scheme.

Punjab contributes a large component of manpower to the armed forces. Three Infantry regiments, Punjab, Sikh and Sikh Light Infantry are primarily composed for troops drawn from the state. In addition, troops from Punjab also form a sizable chunk of other arms and services.

Recruitment into the armed forces is a dynamic process and the intake varies every year depending on the number of vacancies created due to annual retirement, discharges, fresh raisings, and troop rationalisation.

According to officially available figures, over 28,300 persons from Punjab had joined the Army over five years preceding the lockdown. The intake was 5,046 in 2015-16, 4,616 in 2016-17, 4,988 in 2017-18, 5,843 in 2018-19 and 7,813 in 2019-20.  

From now onwards, Agnipath scheme is the sole mode of recruitment for personnel below officer rank. It calls for youth in the age bracket of 17 to 21 years serving for four years out of which 25 percent will be absorbed into the regular cadre.

 The announcement of the scheme had drawn strong reaction from some sections of the public and triggered an intense debate in military and political circles. The issue continues to figure in the Parliament and some state legislatures.