Withdraw Agnipath scheme immediately, urges Stalin

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has urged the Union government to immediately rollback the controversial Agnipath scheme in the interest of national security.

Referring to the nationwide agitation of youths against the contract based recruitment for the defence services called ‘Agnipath’ scheme, Stalin said, “I urge the Union government to immediately withdraw the Agnipath scheme, which destroys the defence service ambition of lakhs of youths, considering the security of the nation.”

Quoting a couple of army veterans as saying that one cannot expect a soldier recruited on contract basis for four years to discharge life-sacrificing duty, Stalin, in a statement issued in this regard, said, “Apart from political parties, veteran officers who had served in the armed forced for several years have stated that military service is not a part-time job and such (agnipath) recruitment would destroy the control in the army.”

“They (officers) have explained the dangers of the scheme and opposed it, ” the Chief Minister said, before seeking a rollback of the scheme by the union government.