When Army Considers Moving Agnipath Rallies Out Of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann Assures Full Support, Warns Against Laxity

The Indian Army has said that it will have to stop holding recruitment rallies in Punjab under the short-term Agnipath scheme or move them to neighbouring states because the Punjab government isn’t helping.

In a letter to the AAP government in Punjab, a zonal recruitment officer of the Indian Army from Jalandhar said that the local civil government wasn’t helping them.

In a letter dated September 8, the zonal officer, Major General Sharad Bikram Singh, said that support from the civil administration in the state was “vague and there were no clear commitments.”

In the letter to Punjab chief secretary VK Janjua and principal secretary, employment generation, skill development, and training, Kumar Rahul, Major General Singh said that civil administration said they were not doing their jobs well because the state government wasn’t giving them clear instructions or they didn’t have enough money.

The zonal officer said he would talk to Army headquarters about the situation. He said he would either “hold in abeyance” all Agnipath recruitment rallies in the state or hold them in neighbouring states instead.

In response to the report, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann told district officials to help recruitment rallies for “Agnipath” as much as possible.

“All deputy commissioners were told to help the Army authorities recruit Agnivesers in Punjab in every way possible. Any lack of care will be taken seriously. Every effort will be made to get as many people from the state as possible to join the army “he wrote on Twitter.

In June, the government started the Agnipath scheme to hire young people between the ages of 17 and a half and 21 for mostly four-year contracts in the army, navy, and air force. Later, it lowered the age limit to 23 for this year’s recruitment.

In June, the Punjab Assembly voted by voice vote to pass a resolution against the military recruitment scheme and to ask the Centre to stop it right away for the good of the country as a whole.