Agnipath recruitment rally in Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand from September

LUCKNOW: Under the newly introduced Agnipath scheme, the defence ministry would start a recruitment rally in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in September, said Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri, the general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C), Central Command, on Wednesday.

“Now, all non-officer recruitments in defence services would be through Agnipath scheme. By late August or early September, the recruitment rally would start in Uttarakhand and west UP districts like Meerut and Agra. In October-November, the rally will cover Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and other cities,” said Lt Gen Dimri.

The eligibility criteria for enrolment under Agnipath is age between 17 and a half and 21 years and minimum educational qualification is class 10. Later, recruitment of ITI-qualified applicants will also be introduced for technical threshold.

“By January, the training of selected Agniveers would start and by July they would be put into service. Only in special circumstances such as war will the Agniveer service be extended. Meanwhile, chief ministers of UP and Uttarakhand have announced priority enrolment of retired Agniveers in state police service,” said Lt Gen Dimri.

“Business houses would keep on employing Agniveers once they retire, as the armed forces will embed these young men and women with discipline and turn them into skilled youth,” said Dimri in his address at Surya auditorium.

Responding to a question on Agniveers being posted in sensitive and border areas and risk to national security, Lt Gen Dimri said, “We would have eyes on every Agniveer and their records will be with us, so there would be no such problem. Even today, those who have served in defence service have worked in sensitive areas, but any sensitive information leak has never happened.”