hardeep singh puri: PSUs underneath housing, petroleum ministries methods to rent ‘Agniveers’: Hardeep Puri

Amid widespread protests in opposition to the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday mentioned the PSUs underneath his housing and petroleum ministries are engaged on hiring ‘Agniveers’ after their four-year service within the armed forces.

He additionally slammed the Opposition for spreading “misinformation” concerning the new navy recruitment mannequin, and mentioned the federal government will educate the youth concerning the Agnipath scheme.

Puri defended the Agnipath, saying it’s a sensible scheme.

“It is a nice scheme. I can say this on file that many PSUs underneath my ministries are already engaged on (hiring) skilled manpower (Agniveers)… their expertise might be utilised in PSUs,” he mentioned whereas talking on the ‘What India Thinks At present World Summit’ organised by the TV9 media group.

Unveiling the scheme on Tuesday, the federal government mentioned youths between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years can be inducted for a four-year tenure whereas 25 per cent of them can be subsequently inducted for normal service.

The higher age restrict was raised to 23 years on Thursday because the protests in opposition to the brand new mannequin for enrolment of troopers into the Military, Navy and Air Power unfold.

In a bid to assuage considerations over the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, the house ministry on Saturday introduced that 10 per cent of all vacancies within the central paramilitary forces and the Assam Rifles can be reserved for ‘Agniveers’. It additionally introduced a three-year rest within the higher age restrict.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh additionally authorized a proposal to order 10 per cent of the job vacancies within the defence ministry for ‘Agniveers’ who meet requisite eligibility standards.

The month-to-month wage of an ‘Agniveer’ within the first yr of employment can be Rs 30,000 and the in-hand quantity can be Rs 21,000 as Rs 9,000 would go to a corpus with an equal contribution from the federal government.

Subsequently, the month-to-month wage within the second, third and fourth yr can be Rs 33,000, Rs 36,500 and Rs 40,000, respectively.