Anti-Agnipath protest: Protestors vandalise Secunderabad railway station premises, set train ablaze
Jun 17, 2022
Secunderabad (Telangana) [India], June 17 : Agitators on Friday vandalised the Secunderabad railway station premises in Hyderabad and set a train ablaze during a protest against the Centre's Agnipath scheme.
The protestors vandalised the windows of a train and torched a two-wheeler on tracks and a few bags on the platform.
Three fire tenders have been moved to the spot to douse the fire.
Protestors also vandalised a TSRTC bus at Secunderabad bus station.
On June 14, the Union Cabinet approved an attractive recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces. The scheme is called Agnipath and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers. Agnipath allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years.
The Ministry of Defence, in its statement, said that the scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces. It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society.
As for the Armed Forces, it will enhance the youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of 'Josh' and 'Jazba' whilst at the same time bringing about a transformational shift towards a more tech-savvy Armed Forces - which is indeed the need of the hour.
It is envisaged that the average age profile of the Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by the implementation of this scheme.
Agnipath Scheme was recently launched by the government in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces. With the new military recruitment scheme facing a backlash by Opposition, the Centre has decided to bring a change in the upper age limit for recruiting Agniveers.
Granting a one-time waiver, the Centre on June 16, 2022, announced that the Agniveer upper age limit for recruitments via Agnipath Scheme has been extended to 23 years from 21 years.
