Comments
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday said that the Mahindra Group welcomed the opportunity to hire ‘Agniveers’ amid protests surrounding the Agnipath military scheme.
Mahindra took to Twitter stating that he was “saddened by the violence around the Agneepath program,” adding that the Mahindra Group was open to hiring ‘Agniveers,’ the personnel to be recruited under the new scheme.
When asked about what roles will be given to ‘Agniveers,’ Mahindra added that there was “large potential for employment of Agniveers in the corporate sector.”
The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, is meant for the recruitment of youths in the age bracket of 17-and-half to 21 years for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them to serve a 15-year tenure. 75 per cent of the recruits will be let go after four years with a sum of about ₹12 lakh. However, they will not receive any pension benefits. The government later extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.
Massive protests
There have been large-scale protests across the country against the scheme. Violent incidents have been recorded in multiple States with youth damaging railway stations in Bihar and Punjab and blocking roads and highways in States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. The Central government has made assurances regarding the scheme, including a preference for Agniveers for government jobs and paramilitary forces.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday, announced the decision to reserve 10 per cent of vacancies in his ministry for ‘Agniveers’. The 10 per cent reservation will be implemented in the Indian Coast Guard and defence civilian posts, and all the 16 defence PSUs, such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), the Defence Ministry stated.
The reservation for Agniveers is in addition to the existing quota for ex-servicemen. Top officials have ruled out any plans for a rollback of the scheme despite large scale protests across the country.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.