NASHIK: Under the leadership of NCP youth wing city president Ambadas Khaire, with the guidance of state spokesperson Mahesh Tapase and city president Ranjan Thackeray, the party members held a protest yesterday, against the Central Government’s Agnipath Yojana, at Shaheed Chowk. The protestors submitted a statement to Additional District Collector Datta Prasad Nade. They demanded the central government to suspend the Agnipath scheme as it will lead to unemployment.
As stated by the party members, Central Government has increased the age limit under the scheme to 23 years, education qualification from 10th (SSC) to 12th (HSC) and will recruit youngsters for four years in three armed forces. They have termed these new conditions as the “Agnipath Yojana”. Under this scheme, youngsters will get six months of training and serve for four years.
After the tenure ends, 25 percent of the candidates will be hired, 75 percent will receive a completion certificate as their service shall end. As alleged by the members, it is highly inappropriate to hire youngsters on a four-year contract basis, and the contractualisation of recruitment is unjust.
Earlier, the recruits were being trained for two years. However, the training’s duration under this scheme has been reduced to six months. Therefore, the quality of training might get affected.
The training will be imparted to 100 percent of youngsters participating in the Agnipath Yojana, out of which 25 per cent will get recruited into the armed forces, and the remaining 75 per cent will retire with a certificate after four years. This decision will further increase the number of unemployed in the country, and the trained youth will resort to unlawful practices.
Nationalist Youth Congress (NYC) has strongly opposed the Agnipath Yojana and demanded immediate cancellation of the Agnipath Yojana. In the meantime, responding to the protests, the home ministry on Saturday announced a 10 percent quota and upper age limit relaxation for Agniveers for recruitment into the Central armed paramilitary forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles.
75 percent of Agniveers receiving a completion certificate after four years shall be eligible for these jobs. Also, they will get several benefits through the one-time ‘Seva Nidhi’ package. A large number of office bearers and activists, including women city president Anita Bhamre, Mahesh Bhamre, Kishore Shirsath, etc, were present at the protest.
