Congress MP KC Venugopal on Friday urged Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence Chairman Jual Oram to convene an urgent meeting of all stakeholders and defence experts to discuss in detail the recently announced Agniveer scheme by the Central government.
Noting that violent protests are continuing across the country over the recently announced recruitment scheme, the Congress MP in his letter said, “As you are aware, violent protests are continuing across the country over the recently announced Agniveer Recruitment Scheme by the Central Government. There is widespread anger among the youth with regard to this scheme particularly due to its temporary nature, lack of pension and health care benefits.”
Pointing out the drawback of the scheme, Venugopal, a member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence said, “Significantly, it is also pointed out that the scheme carries multiple risks including the subversion of the long-standing traditions of the armed forces. There is also wide apprehension that the soldiers recruited under the scheme may lack required training in the proposed short span of six months. For all obvious reasons, it is evident that the scheme is poorly conceived and hastily drawn up without any wide consultations with stakeholders.”
He further urged to convene an urgent meeting of the Standing Committee on Defence at the earliest to discuss and deliberate upon the Agnipath scheme in detail.
With inputs from NDTV
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