Scrap ‘Agnipath’ scheme, make regular recruitments: Raja Warring
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today demanded that it was high time the Government of India scrapped the “Agnipath” scheme of recruitment in the defence forces and made regular recruitments only.
In a statement issued here, Warring hoped that better sense prevails among the powers that be and they realise that the “Agnipath” scheme was completely discriminatory as had been seen in some recent cases.
He referred to the death of an “Agniveer” from Punjab in Jammu by a bullet injury whose family had not been provided any compensation. He said it had been observed that after some “Agniveers” laid down their lives for the country, they were neither granted pension nor the status of a martyr when they fought like regular soldiers.
Warring observed that the situation had drastically changed now from the time the “Agnipath” scheme was conceived and introduced. He said that time, the Government of India probably did not anticipate the situation that arose recently in the wake of the terror attack in Pahalgam.
He said under the current situation, it was highly advisable that there should only be regular recruitments in the defence services and all “Agniveers” recruited so far, must be regularised as regular soldiers.
Warring noted that the northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh from where the maximum recruitments were made were the worst affected by this scheme.
