Samyukta Kisan Morcha-led protests against Agnipath held in several states

Several farm organisations, trade unions, civil society institutions and students staged peaceful demonstrations across the country against the Agnipath scheme on Friday, farmers collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha SKM said on Friday.

Several farm organisations, trade unions, civil society institutions and students staged peaceful demonstrations across the country against the Agnipath scheme on Friday, farmers' collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said on Friday. Widespread protests were held across Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, and other states, the farmers' union, who had also spearheaded the agitation against the Centre's now-scrapped agricultural laws, said. The demonstrations were peaceful and memoranda were submitted at district and block headquarters, it added. The SKM termed Agnipath ''a big fraud upon the nation'', for the youth aspiring to join the armed forces. ''Stopping the recruitment process which had started in 2020-21 is playing with the dreams of the youth. Reducing the number of recruits in the army, reducing the length of service and ending pension is an injustice to all the youth and families who saw the armed forces as a career along with the service of the country," the statement read.

The scheme, which was announced on June 14, seeks to recruit youngsters in the age group of 17-and-a-half to 21 years for a period of four years, with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years. For 2022, the upper age limit has been extended to 23 years.