NEW DELHI: In a big overhaul of the Agnipath scheme, Modi govt Wednesday extended the service of Agniveers from four years to six, with increased remuneration, and opened the path for their absorption as regular soldiers. The Union Cabinet’s decision will clear the way for three lakh Agniveers, including the first batch of 18,300 who will complete their four-year tenure by Dec 31 this year.Calling the two-year extension the ‘second tour of duty’ for Agniveers, defence minister Rajnath Singh said, “ This would provide enrollment of all willing Agniveers as regular soldiers after the tenure of 4/6 years, who meet the selection criteria. This decision is continuation of long-term structural reforms of our defence forces, aimed at creating a younger, fitter, technologically equipped and future-ready military. It is not merely a recruitment policy; it is a way forward to prepare India’s military for the changing character of warfare.”The changes will help remove heartburn in various recruitment zones. The decision is also politically significant as the opposition has time and again questioned the aim of launching a short-tenure recruitment scheme.Chief of Defence Staff Gen N S Raja Subramani said, “When the Agnipath scheme was rolled out, we emphasised it was not cast in stone. We said we would evaluate the performances of the Agniveers and conduct continuous reviews.”Calling it a “very significant day for defence forces and our Agniveers”, Gen Subramani, at a media briefing with I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, said as envisaged earlier, 25% of Agniveers will be offered regular employment based on merit during the first four years.“For the remaining 75% Agniveers, another engagement period of two years has been approved by Cabinet. Thereafter, all Agniveers will be offered enrolment as regular soldiers subject to their willingness and meeting objective selection criteria comprising parameters of physical fitness, vigilance clearance and clean discipline record,” he said.“While the Navy batch was going to complete the tenure on Nov 21, the IAF batch between Dec 21 and 25, and Army batch on Dec 31,” a defence official told TOI.Gen Subramani said, “During the two-year engagement period, 75% Agniveers will get increased remuneration as compared to the earlier four-year period. During the fifth year, they will get Rs 43,500 salary per month and during the sixth year, Rs 47,500.”The changes in the scheme were brought in before the first batch of 18,300 Agniveers were to exit the armed forces after completing their four-year tenure. “While the Navy batch was going to complete the tenure on Nov 21, the IAF batch between Dec 21 and 25, and Army batch on Dec 31,” a defence source told TOI.The short-tenure Agnipath scheme was rolled out in June 2022 during the Covid period amid realisation that the ballooning salary and pension bill left little for modernisation and augmentation of weaponry. It was also influenced by the realisation that the changed nature of warfare, with technology playing a bigger role, may have reduced the cruciality of the number of boots on the ground.The increased allocation for defence in recent years and revenue from defence exports increased the elbow room for govt to accommodate Agniveers.“Those Agniveers who are not willing to continue in the services after the four-year period will receive a Seva Nidhi package (comprising their own 30% monthly contribution plus the matching contribution from govt and accrued interest),” Gen Subramani said.“The military is happy with the overall performance of Agniveer recruits, who are also deployed in forward areas,” he said, adding women Agniveers are also doing good. “Some of them even deployed on aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya,” he informed.The CDS also made it clear that there will be no problem of cohesion of different Agniveer batches into the regular Army. He said the military had been considering the proposal for quite some months before the Cabinet took the decision.
