Veerappa Moily slams govt for ‘Agnipath’ scheme, says it should lead to ‘flood of unemployed’ youth

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Attacking the federal government over the Agnipath scheme, senior Congress chief M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday mentioned that after a four-year stint, the ‘Agniveers’ will stay devoid of the standing of ex-servicemen with “no skills” transferable to civil life.

The former Union minister additionally mentioned the just lately launched army recruitment scheme will result in a situation underneath which there might be a “flood of unemployed youths” thrown into the market.

In an announcement, Moily alleged that the scheme is certainly one of “exploiting the youth of this nation” and can “impinge” upon the professionalism, operational capabilities and combativeness of the armed forces.

He mentioned the scheme has been introduced with none critical research. Moily alleged that the scheme appears to be motivated by political concerns as a substitute of being based mostly on the thought-about view of the defence consultants or Armed Forces.

“The professionalism, integrity and sovereignty of the nation is being compromised. Can we afford to compromise the above just to save budgetary allotment to the armed forces. It is preposterous and dangerous to achieve political objective through armed forces,” Moily mentioned.

“It is again nightmarish to think of such off-the-cuff schemes like demonetisation. Measures such as demonetisation caused irreparable damage to the MSMEs and unorganised labourers. Similar irreparable damage is likely to be caused by the Agnipath scheme,” he mentioned.

All you must learn about Agnipath scheme

The Agniveers might be “devoid of the status of ex-servicemen with no skills transferable to civil life”, he mentioned.

“It is quite attractive to hear the voices of corporations prompted by government offering rehabilitation to the Agniveers. Has this been done to hundreds of ex-servicemen who are in the waiting? Existing quotas of ex-servicemen in various government departments are yet to be filled,” Moily mentioned.

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Several components of the nation witnessed protests after the announcement of the scheme that seeks to recruit youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years to 21 for under 4 years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 extra years. For 2022, the higher age restrict has been prolonged to 23 years.