Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 17: While the central government has yet to announce an official start date for the Agnipath scheme, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Friday that training for the first Agniveers will begin in December 2022, with actual service beginning in the middle of 2023.
“Recruitment process is going to begin soon. Within the next two days, a notification will be issued on the official website. After that our Army recruitment organisations will declare a detailed schedule of registration and rally…,” the Indian Army chief told to news agency ANI.
“As far as the question of ‘Agniveers’ going to recruitment training centres is concerned, the training of first ‘Agniveers’ will begin this December (in 2022) at the centres. The active service will commence in the middle of 2023,” he added.
COVID-19, in particular, put a two-year freeze on Army recruitment. The Army last recruited jawans in 2019-2020, and there have been no new recruits since then. The Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, on the other hand, have both recruited in the last two years.
Hundreds of aspirants disrupted rail and road traffic while police fired tear gas shells to disperse them as violent protests over the Central government’s ‘Agnipath’ plan for armed forces recruitment continued across Bihar nad other states on Thursday and Friday.
Aspirants held protests against the project on Wednesday also in Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, and Buxar districts, interrupting road and rail traffic. The first cohort of ‘Agniveers’ will be ready by July 2023, with recruitment starting in the next 90 days.
