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The Haryana government will provide “guaranteed” employment to ‘Agniveers’ after their four-year stint in the armed forces, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced on Tuesday.
His statement comes even as the state, like several other parts of the country, has witnessed massive protests in the last few days over the Centre’s Agnipath scheme to recruit soldiers into the army, navy and the air force followed by compulsory retirement for most without gratuity and pension benefits.
However, the opposition Congress questioned Khattar how his government will “create another category” beyond the 50 per cent reservation to accommodate the ex-servicemen.
“I announce that anyone (the Agniveers) who wants to join Haryana government services will be given a guaranteed job. No one will go without a job. We take guarantee for this,” Khattar said at a state-level International Yoga Day function in Bhiwani.
The chief minister said Haryana is the first state in the country to ensure jobs for the Agniveers and that they will be absorbed in the state’s Group C services, which are non-gazetted posts such as clerks, teachers and office assistants, and in the police force.
Khattar also tweeted about the announcement and said, “I announce that under the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, Agniveers who come back after serving the country for four years will be given jobs in Haryana government with a guarantee.”
The chief minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought radical reforms in various spheres and Agnipath was one such initiative.
His announcement drew criticism from the Congress, with senior leader Randeep Singh Surjewala telling the chief minister not to lure the youths with “lollipops”.
“How will you create another category beyond 50 per cent reservation?
“Then anyone will challenge this additional category created under #AgnipathScheme in court and youth will again have nowhere to go.
“Tell the PM to absorb everyone (all Agniveers) in the army after four years. Don’t mislead the youth,” Surjewala said in a tweet in Hindi.
Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union (Chaduni) chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni in a tweet asked the chief minister to recruit those ex-servicemen who have already completed their tenure in the armed forces but are now unemployed.
“Manohar Lal Khattar Ji, have some shame. Why are you fooling the country by giving false assurance to the youth of the country and the soldiers? 55,000 soldiers in the country retire every year and only five per cent of them get jobs. First give them jobs,” he said.
The Centre had last Tuesday unveiled the Agnipath scheme under which youths between 17-and-a-half and 21 years will be inducted in the three services for a four-year tenure.
Twenty-five per cent of the recruits will be retained for regular service.
The government projected this scheme as a major overhaul of the decades-old selection process to enhance the youthful profile of the services.
On Thursday, it relaxed the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment this year as protests against the scheme intensified.
Meanwhile, in a bid to promote yoga, Khattar said the subject will be included in the school curriculum from Classes I to XII so that students can easily adopt the ancient practice and get benefitted.
The chief minister also dedicated 337 wellness centres to the citizens of the state.
He called upon the youth to take a pledge on Yoga Day that they will stay away from drugs and also contribute towards a greener planet.
Khattar said a postgraduate yoga, naturopathy and research institute is being established in Jhajjar’s Devarkhana village. An All India Institute of Medical Sciences specialised in Ayush medicine is also being built in Panchkula and it will be ready soon, he added.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya said yoga is a medium for human welfare and it is through yoga that the spirit of peace, harmony and brotherhood can be promoted in the world.
The Governor was speaking at a programme organised on the International Day of Yoga at Haryana Raj Bhavan here.
