Agnipath: Army to hold three rallies in Punjab

Chandigarh, July 29

With the Agnipath scheme taking off, the Army has firmed up plans to conduct three recruitment rallies in the state in initial phase.

These rallies are scheduled to be held in Ludhiana (August), Patiala and Gurdaspur (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 Covid-19 outbreak.

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.