AMN / CHANDIGARH
The Punjab Assembly today passed a resolution denouncing the Centre’s Agnipath defence recruitment scheme.
Two BJP legislators Ashwani Sharma and Jangi Lal Mahajan, however, opposed the resolution. The resolution was moved in the House by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Participating in the discussion on the resolution, Mann said he will soon raise the issue of Agnipath scheme with the prime minister and the Union home minister.
Vehemently opposing Agnipath, Mann said this scheme was against the country’s youth. Leader of Opposition and Congress legislator Partap Singh Bajwa demanded that the Agnipath scheme should be withdrawn.
Akali MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali also supported the resolution and demanded the scheme’s roll back. Protests had erupted in various parts of the country after the Centre unveiled the Agnipath scheme to recruit youngsters aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 years in the army, navy and air force, largely on a four-year contractual basis. It later relaxed the upper age limit for this year’s recruitment to 23.