Attending a press conference, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced that the Cabinet Committee on Security has taken a decision to approve 'Agnipath', a new recruitment scheme for the armed forces. "Under this, Indian youth would be granted an opportunity to get inducted into the armed services," he said, reported new agency ANI. "Under the Agnipath scheme, efforts are to create a youthful profile of the armed forces. It would help to train them for new technologies, and also improve their health levels. This scheme will increase employment opportunities with new skills in different sectors," he said.
Under the Tour of Duty (ToD) scheme, soldiers are set to be recruited on a short-term as well as a long-term basis.
As per the initial proposal, the recruitment of soldiers in the Army is set to be conducted under the new scheme in the immediate future and the duration of service for 50 per cent of the new recruits could be between three to five years while the rest may have a much longer tenure.
As per the original proposal, some soldiers would be released after three years of service while some others would be released after around five years. Some of the soldiers recruited under the scheme could have a longer duration of service. However, these proposals saw some changes when the scheme was given final touches in the last few weeks.
Currently, the Army recruits young people under the Short Service Commission for an initial tenure of 10 years which is extendable up to 14 years. Under the new scheme, people to be recruited under the ToD for three years and beyond will be eligible to be deployed as combatants in key forward locations and there will be no restrictions in their roles, the people cited above said. The proposal, which has been part of broad reforms envisaged for the forces, has been deliberated upon extensively in the last two years. The scheme will benefit the Army financially, according to the people cited above.
