"Why are the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Defence Minister quiet on the Agnipath scheme?" Kharge asked.
The recruitment process can be changed by the State midway if it is in public interest, a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said
The announcement of the officer came after the violent protests broke out in some parts of the country wherein incidents like stone-pelting and setting trains on fire were reported.
Industry leaders, including Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka and Biocon Ltd chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday came out in support of the Agnipath scheme, saying it has large potential for employment of youth in the corporate sector. Mahindra also expressed dismay over the violence against the scheme while asserting that the farm equipment to aerospace conglomerate welcomes the opportunity to recruit trained, capable and young people under the programme. The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for the recruitment of youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years to 21 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.
A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday against the Centre's Agnipath scheme alleging that the government has quashed the century-old selection process for the Armed forces which is contrary to the constitutional provisions and without having parliamentary approval.
The IAF chief also said that raising the upper age limit to 23 for induction under the Agnipath scheme for the year 2022 would permit a larger section of youths to enrol under the new model of recruitment.
Rahul said the BJP government has "insulted" the values of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan'.
The armed forces said on Tuesday that "credible" information on the Agnipath scheme recently has dispelled misinformation about the initiative and asserted that youngsters preparing to become soldiers have returned to physical activities at several places.
The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would hear next week pleas challenging the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme for recruitment in the armed forces.
She alleged the new military recruitment scheme would be destructive for the youth and the Army.
Agnipath offers jobs to youngsters between 17.5 years and 23 years of age. The unemployment rate in this age group has risen from around 23% in 2017 to over 50% since 2020. Every second person who is looking for employment in this age group is unemployed, explains Mahesh Vyas.
The Army will formally kick-start the process for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme within two days by coming out with an initial notification for the enrolment, senior military officials said on Friday.
The protests, which is into its third day in the state, caused massive disruption of railway services at Buxar and Kahalgaon, officials of East Central Railways said.
Sources said Tewari, who has publicly lauded the Agnipath scheme and termed it as a much-needed reform in the armed forces, has taken a stand contrary to that taken by his party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Agnipath scheme is an example of necessary reforms undertaken by the Army and accused the opposition of playing politics over the recruitment process aimed at keeping the average age in armed forces young.
The deceased, an unfortunate first casualty of the ongoing protests against the Centre's new recruitment policy for the Armed forces, hailed from Dabeerpet village in Warangal district of Telangana.
In Bihar, where a bandh had been called, a railway station and a police vehicle were torched, an ambulance attacked and security personnel injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of the agitation, while protesters vandalised Ludhiana railway station in Punjab and blocked roads and rail tracks in West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
Union minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday appealed to the youths protesting against the Agnipath scheme to shun violence and come forward for talks, asserting that the government is ready to look into their grievances with an 'open mind' and make changes 'if required'.
The government should keep the interest of unemployed youth paramount and bring out various policy aspects of this initiative, Varun said.
In a controversial move, the district police in Aligarh included bulldozers in some of the flag marches in the city after the violence over the Centre's Agnipath scheme.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Friday made a fresh plea to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for an immediate review of the Agnipath scheme, and assure protesting youngsters that their future will not be adversely affected by the new recruitment policy in the armed forces.
As protests against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme intensified, the Army, Navy and the Air Force on Friday announced that they will start the enrolment process under the new model by next week while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to the youths wanting to join the armed forces to start preparing for the induction.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the plea for an SIT probe into the damage to public properties during the protests against Agnipath will be listed for hearing after the Chief Justice of India takes a decision in this regard.
Of the 612 trains affected, 602 trains were cancelled, including 223 mail and express trains and 379 passengers trains, the Railways said in a statement.
The Railways cancelled 234 trains while 340 trains have been affected so far due to protests against the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the defence services, the Railways said on Friday.
The process of recruitment under the Agnipath military recruitment scheme will start in a "few days", Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday and appealed to the youth looking at joining the military to start preparing for it.
Once rolled out, theaterisation will be the biggest military reform in the country. It will see the creation of unified theatre commands within the 1.7 million-strong Indian armed forces.
It was Singh's second meeting with the chiefs of the Army, Navy and the Air Force for the second straight day on the issue.
Priyanka accused the prime minister of "speaking on unnecessary issues" while staying silent on corruption, unemployment and the alleged misrule under the NDA government in Bihar.
Protestors continued to target railway properties in Bihar and West Bengal on Saturday to vent their ire against the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme disrupting train services in the eastern region for the fourth day in a row, while demonstrations were held on roads in Odisha and Jharkhand.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had on Friday announced similar incentives.
During the hearing, one of the petitioners said his plea has a pan-India effect to which a three-judge bench asserted that pan-India does not mean the apex court will have to hear everything, adding it would be appropriate to have a considered view of the Delhi high court.
Such public domain discussions affect their morale and dedication -- and that, if anything, will definitely affect combat-effectiveness, asserts Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
What is the lure of a government job? The answer is India's worst kept secret: Job security. And among the many government jobs desperately sought after is in the armed forces. Which is why the riots by aspiring armed forces job seekers against the government's Agnipath scheme should not really be surprising, points out Harishchandra.
"The schedule of recruitment process will be announced shortly. We call upon our youth to avail this opportunity for joining the Indian Army as Agniveers," Gen Pande said.
A man was shot dead in police firing in Telangana's Secunderabad, trains went up in flames, and public and private vehicles attacked, as railway stations and highways turned into battleground in many states on Friday amid burgeoning protests against Agnipath, the contentious defence recruitment scheme.
Agnipath may be an exercise to address the genuine needs of the armed forces. But overall, it betrays the tendency to use the military and paramilitary for employment generation and shaping a national character, instead of treating them as the professional services they are, notes Shyam G Menon.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday alleged that the Indian Army was using caste as a factor for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme, drawing a swift rebuttal from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who rejected the charge as a "rumour".
'I am helpless and there is no one to help me.' 'I have been on this platform since Saturday.'
KC Tyagi also spoke on special status for Bihar, which has been a demand of the party and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
