Former Agniveers to get 10% reservation in central armed police forces

Former Agniveers will get 10% reservation in the Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force, the heads of the forces said on Thursday.

The heads of the Central Industrial Security Force, Railway Protection Force and Sashastra Seema Balalso announced that 10% of the vacancies for the posts of constables will be reserved for former Agnipath recruits.

The Agnipath scheme, introduced in 2022, recruits citizens between 17-and-a-half and 21 years of age for the armed forces for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them for 15 more years. Those recruited under this scheme are called Agniveers. The introduction of the scheme had triggered protests across several states as aspirants demanded permanent recruitment with pension benefits.

The reservation for former Agniveers in the central security forces was announced by the Union home ministry last year.

On Thursday, a series of videos showing the director-generals of the five central armed police forces said that arrangements have been made to provide a 10% quota to Agniveers after they complete their four-year service in the armed forces.

They also mentioned relaxations for former Agniveers in recruitment rules, including exemption from the mandatory physical efficiency test. An age relaxation of five years for the first batch of former Agniveers and three years for the subsequent batches will also be provided.

The development comes even as the Opposition has demanded that the National Democratic Alliance government should scrap the Agnipath scheme, calling it discriminatory toward Agniveers.

On July 1, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had referred to an Agnipath recruit’s death in a speech and claimed that although he was killed in a landmine blast, he was not called a “martyr”.

Gandhi said that Kumar’s family would not get a pension. “They won’t get compensation,” he claimed. “Agniveer is use-and-throw, like a labourer.”

On June 6, the Janata Dal (United), which is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, had also said that the Agnipath scheme needs to be reviewed.