Former Chief Minister of Haryana and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday said the Agnipath scheme will weaken the country's army and reduce its numbers. He said Haryana would be among the States hit the hardest by the scheme.
Addressing the party’s peaceful “Satyagraha” agitation in Rohtak against the scheme, held as part of the protests across all Assembly constituencies in the State, Mr. Hooda said there were two lakh vacancies in the armed forces since recruitment was on hold for the past three years due to COVID, but the government had come up with this scheme to play with the future of the youth instead of filling the vacant posts.
He claimed that if this scheme was implemented, the strength of the Army would gradually come down to six lakh. “This will have a very bad impact on employment, especially in Haryana. Till now 5,000-7,000 youth were recruited into the Army every year from Haryana. If there had been regular recruitment for the past three years, about 20,000 youth would have been recruited. But now only 963 Agniveers will be admitted under the new scheme and 75% of them will be pushed into unemployment after four years,” he said.
