For a group of youth hailing from families of ex-servicemen in Prakasam district who had been slogging day in and day out to improve their physical fitness to excel in the army recruitment drive, the announcement of a new scheme, Agnipath, has come as a huge disappointment.
The scheme, introduced by the Centre, to recruit soldiers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force on a four-year short-term contract has received backlash from the aspirants. Candidates are staging protests across the country demanding rollback of the scheme.
“We were looking forward to making a career in the armed forces for a minimum of 15 years. But the new scheme has disappointed us. Four years is too short a period for us to make a mark in the armed forces,” said a group of youth while undergoing a training session here under the watchful eyes of a team of ex-servicemen led by Mr. K Raghava Rao. No recruitment drive had been conducted in the recent past because of COVID-19 pandemic.
