India News | Goa Cabinet to Decide on Reservation Percentage for Agniveers in State Services: CM Sawant

Panaji, Jun 22 (PTI) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the exact percentage of reservation for Agniveers in services like the police, forest and prison departments will be decided by the state cabinet.

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Talking to reporters, Sawant said he had already announced that reservation would be provided to Agniveers in the state government's police force, fire and emergency services, forest and prison departments.

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"The exact percentage of reservation would be decided in the state cabinet meeting," the chief minister said.

He was speaking in the presence of Goa BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade after chairing a meeting of the party's unit dedicated to ex-servicemen.

Sawant said the BJP's ex-servicemen unit has taken the responsibility to go around the state and create awareness about the Agnipath scheme amongst the youth.

He said that this scheme will not only provide skilled training to the youth with the salary up to Rs four lakh annually, it will also create youth who is patriotic and ready to fight for the nation.

Sawant congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for the scheme.

"Everyone should welcome this scheme," he added.

The Centre recently unveiled this ambitious scheme for recruitment of the youth aged between 17 and a half and 23 in the Army, Navy and the Air Force, largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis. The youth recruited under the scheme will be known as "Agniveers". After the completion of the four-year tenure, 25 per cent of the recruits from each specific batch will be offered regular service. However, protests erupted last week against the scheme, which turned violent at some places in the country.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)