STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: Several youths were detained on Friday as they took to streets in Jammu and Kashmir and tried blocking highways to protest against the newly launched Agnipath military recruitment scheme, an official said.
The unhappy army aspirants demonstrated in Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts of the state.
Police resorted to lathicharge and detained several protestors after they became violent and indulged in stone pelting at Kunjwani Chowk on Jammu-Pathankot Highway in the outskirts of Jammu.
Accusing police of high-handedness, one of the protesters named Rahul Sharma said that the aspirants had just started assembling when police resorted to lathicharge without any provocation.
He said that they reject the new scheme and took to streets to press for their recruitment as per the previous scheme.
“We have submitted our forms for recruitment in the army in February 2020 and have already cleared the physical and medical examination. The written test was not undertaken by the army over the past one year and now they have come up with this scheme which is unjustified and anti-youth, Sharma said amid anti-BJP sloganeering. The protesters have threatened to intensify the agitation in the coming days.
Another group of protestors tried to block the Jammu-Pathankot Highway near Kalibari Chowk in Kathua district, the official said, adding that police dispersed those who pulled down a poster of Union Minister Jitendra Singh and raised slogans against Bharatiya Janata Party.
Another group of protesters blocked the Jammu-Rajouri National Highway near Muradpur before dispersing peacefully on the intervention of police, the official added. Unveiling the scheme on Tuesday, the government said youths between the ages of 17 and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure while 25 per cent of them will be subsequently inducted for regular service.
The youths to be recruited under the new scheme would be called ‘Agniveer’. A major objective of the scheme is to bring down the average age of military personnel and cut ballooning salary and pension bills.