Cong seeks urgent meeting of House panel on defence

IN THE LETTER, KC VENUGOPAL SAYS IT IS ‘EVIDENT THAT THE SCHEME IS POORLY CONCEIVED AND HASTILY DRAWN UP’

NEW DELHI: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Friday urged the parliamentary standing committee on defence to convene an urgent meeting of all the stakeholders and defence experts to discuss in detail the new Agnipath scheme for recruitment to armed forces.

“As you are aware, violent protests are continuing across the country over the recently announced Agniveer recruitment scheme by the central government. There is widespread anger among the youth with regard to this scheme particularly due to its temporary nature, lack of pension and health care benefits,” Venugopal, who is a member of the committee, said in a letter to the defence panel chairman Jual Oram.

The letter comes as violent protests against the new scheme rocked several states in the country even as the government reassured young people that recruits under the Agnipath scheme will be taken care of after their four-year stint in the force.

“The scheme carried multiple risks, including the subversion of the long-standing traditions of the armed forces. There is also wide apprehension that the soldiers recruited under the scheme may lack the required training in the proposed short span of six months. for all obvious reasons, it is evident that the scheme is poorly conceived and hastily drawn up without any wide consultations with stakeholders,” he added and urged Oram to call an “urgent meeting of the standing committee on defence at the earliest” with all major stakeholders and defence experts for their opinions on the scheme.

The official list of meetings of the Lok Sabha showed that the defence panel has not slotted any meetings till July 4.

The defence committee also has seven issues on its agenda, including “Review of strategic operational preparedness of Defence Forces in view of current security scenario including Border Security and “Preparedness of the Armed Forces in terms of Modern Warfare including cyber threat and AntiDrone capabilities”.

Other issues are assessment of Indigenous Defence Production, Modernization of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Review of intake of Female Officers in Armed Forces, A Critical Review of the functioning of Zila Sainik Boards in the country and Assessment of the Welfare Measures available to War Widows/Families in Armed Forces are the other subjects the panel plans to discuss.