Within just four days of the start of registration process for Agnipath defence recruitment scheme, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has received as many as 94,281 applications for the short-term military job.
“A total of 94,281 Agniveer Vayu aspirants have registered till 10.30 am (Monday). Registration closes on July 5,” Defence Ministry Spokesperson A Bharat Bhushan Babu said on Twitter.
Till Sunday, the IAF had received 56,960 applications under the scheme.
After the scheme was unveiled on June 14, violent protests against the scheme rocked several States for nearly a week and several Opposition parties demanded its rollback.
Under the scheme, the Government had announced that youths between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure. Twenty-five per cent of them will be subsequently inducted for regular service.
On June 16, the Government increased the upper age limit for recruitment under the scheme to 23 years from 21 for the year 2022, and subsequently announced a slew of placatory steps like a preference for Agniveers in recruitment into the Central paramilitary forces and defence public sector undertakings upon their retirement.
Many BJP-ruled States also declared the Agniveers — as the soldiers inducted under the Agnipath scheme will be known — will be accorded priority in induction into State police forces.
However, amid the then raging protests over the Agnipath scheme, the defence forces warned that those who had indulged in violent protests and arson against the new recruitment scheme would not be inducted and that the candidates would be required to submit an undertaking to the effect before induction in the respective service.