Highlights
- The Ministry of Defense on Sunday jointly addressed the media.
- Lt General Anil Puri emphasized on the Indian Army's values of discipline.
- Centre will start with the recruitment of 46,000 Army aspirants to 'analyse' the Agnipath scheme.
Agnipath Scheme: The Ministry of Defense (Army, Navy, and Air Force) on Sunday jointly addressed the media, to talk about the recruitment of soldiers under Centre's Agnipath scheme. Lt General Anil Puri emphasized on the Indian Army's values of discipline, and said that all the aspirants will have to provide a certificate proving they were not part of any protests or vandalism. He said that the Centre will start with the recruitment of 46,000 Army aspirants to 'analyse' the scheme. He also said that there will be no rollback of the scheme introduced by the Centre.
"Indian Army's foundation in discipline. No space for arson, vandalism. Every individual will give a certificate that they were not part of protest or vandalism. Police verification is 100%, no one can join without that," he said during the briefing.
Aspirants will be asked to write as part of the enrollment form that they were not part of the arson. If any FIR is found against them, they will not be allowed to join the Armed Forces.
"We had not anticipated the recent violence over this scheme. There is no place for indiscipline in the Armed Forces. All candidates will have to give a written pledge that they did not indulge in any arson/violence," Puri said.
He further asserted that Agniveers would get the same allowance in areas like Siachen and other areas which are applicable to the regular soldiers serving at present.
The Union Cabinet on June 14 approved a recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the three services of the Armed Forces called Agnipath and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers.