Haryana announces 10% reservation for Agniveers in police, forest department recruitment

Months ahead of the assembly polls, Haryana's BJP government announced on Wednesday 10 per cent reservation for Agniveers in the recruitment of constables, forest guards and jail wardens, along with quotas in other posts.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini also said that in the recruitment for civil posts in Group B and Group C, the government has decided to grant Agniveers a relaxation of three years in the upper age limit. "However, for the first batch of Agniveers, this age relaxation will be five years," he added.

Saini said his government will also provide Agniveers five per cent reservation in direct recruitments for civil posts in Group C and one per cent in Group B.

While Group B refers to gazetted posts in the state government, Group C comprises non-gazetted posts such as clerks.

"In direct recruitment to posts of constable, mining guard, forest guard, jail warden and special police officer made by the state government, there will be 10 per cent horizontal reservation for Agniveers," the chief minister said at a press conference here.

"If any industrial unit employs an Agniveer at a salary of more than Rs 30,000 per month, then our government will give that unit an annual subsidy of Rs 60,000," he said.

Saini also announced that if an Agniveer takes a loan of up to Rs 5 lakh to start a business, no interest will be charged on it.

He also launched an attack on the opposition Congress and accused it of spreading "misinformation" about the Agnipath military recruitment scheme. "This scheme has been brought in public interest," Saini said.

He also announced that Agniveers will get arms licences on a priority basis. Agniveers seeking employment in government departments, boards or corporations will be given priority in the matrix score, Saini added.

The Agnipath scheme, introduced by the BJP government at the Centre in June 2022 for short-term induction of personnel in the armed forces, has faced severe criticism from several quarters, including opposition parties.

In the run-up to the recently held Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said in Haryana's Mahendragarh that the Agniveer scheme would be scrapped and thrown in the dustbin if the opposition INDIA bloc came to power.

In 2022, days after the scheme was announced by the Centre, the then-chief minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar had said the state government would provide guaranteed employment to Agniveers after their four-year stint in the armed forces.

The Agnipath scheme provides for recruiting youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.