New Delhi, June 19: Amid escalating protests against the ‘Agnipath’ recruitment scheme, the Ministry of Defence on Sunday announced recruitment dates for the Army and the Navy. The Air Force has already announced its recruitment process, which will commence from June 24. The dates were announced at tri-services press conference at the Ministry of Defence.
Lt Gen CB Ponnappa, Adjutant General of the Indian Army, said the terms, conditions and eligibility criteria have been put up on the Army website. By tomorrow the draft notification will be put up. On July 1 a formal notification will sent to all recruitment offices. The first recruitment rallies will start in the first week of August till November. The process will be in two batches. Around 25,000 are to be inducted in first batch and will be done by the first half of December. Second batch of 15,000 will be in first half of February 2023. In all 83 rallies are planned across the country, covering all the states. They will go by the laid down process that is physical test and a written exam.
The Navy has already started working on the process, said Vice Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi. By June 25 the advertisement will be out. Within one month the process will start. By November 21 the first batch of Agniveers will report at the training centre, INS Chilka. “The Navy has an existing online exam and will go through the same route,” Vice Admiral Tripathi said. Speaking for the IAF, Air Marshal SK Jha said the notification and registration process for enrollment of first batch will go live online from June 24. The first batch is expected by December 30 following which training will commence.
Meanwhile, the IAF on its website put out a note giving details about the process. Recruitment would be from all over India and contemporary technology (online STAR exam and associated testing methods) will be used. Additional Secretary, Department of Military Affairs, Lt Gen Anil Puri said there is no space for indiscipline in the Armed forces. Every one who aspires to join Agnipath will give an undertaking that they have not participated in any arson. There will be police verification after that to weed out the persons whose names figure in police FIRs for the protests in the past one week. “There will be no roll back of the scheme said,” Lt Gen Puri.The process by which the forces will form a ready reckoner of the skill sets of each of the Agniveers is ready to roll out in a month.
