Month: June 2022

Amid protests against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme, Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday hailed the Centre’s decision to approve the scheme and called it a “much-required” reform in the defence sector.

“Agnipath is much-required reform. It will reduce the average age of the Armed forces. It will transform (the Army) to even a more deadly and potent Combat force. Those continuing the path, or for those who wish to pursue a career in this service… will get opportunities to serve a short soldiering stint. #Agniveer,” tweeted the minister.
Agnipath Scheme was recently launched by the government in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces. With the new military recruitment scheme facing a backlash by Opposition, the Centre has decided to bring a change in the upper age limit for recruiting Agniveers. Granting a one-time waiver, the Centre on June 16, 2022, announced that the Agniveer upper age limit for recruitments via Agnipath Scheme has been extended to 23 years from 21 years.

Violent protest over the Central government’s ‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruitment in armed forces continued across Bihar on Thursday with hundreds of aspirants disrupting rail and road traffic while police fired tear gas shells to disperse them.

On Wednesday also, aspirants staged protests at Muzaffarpur, Begusarai and Buxar districts over the scheme, disrupting road and rail traffic movement.

The Ministry of Defence, in its statement on Tuesday, said that the Agnipath scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces. It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society.

As for the Armed Forces, it will enhance the youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of ‘Josh’ and ‘Jazba’ whilst at the same time bringing about a transformational shift towards a more tech-savvy Armed Forces – which is indeed the need of the hour.

It is envisaged that the average age profile of the Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by the implementation of this scheme. The nation stands to immensely benefit from the infusion of highly inspired youth with a deeper understanding of self-discipline, diligence and focus who would be adequately skilled and will be able to contribute in other sectors.

The dividends of short military service to the nation, society and the youth of the nation are immense. This includes the inculcation of patriotism, teamwork, enhancement of physical fitness, ingrained loyalty for the country and availability of trained personnel to boost national security in times of external threats, internal threats and natural disasters.

This is a major defence policy reform introduced by the Government to usher in a new era in the Human Resource policy of the three Services. The policy, which comes into immediate effect, will hereafter govern the enrolment for the three services. (ANI)

Agitators on Friday vandalised the Secunderabad railway station premises in Hyderabad and set a train ablaze during a protest against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme.

The protestors vandalised the windows of a train and torched a two-wheeler on tracks and a few bags on the platform.

Three fire tenders have been moved to the spot to douse the fire.

Protestors also vandalised a TSRTC bus at Secunderabad bus station.

On June 14, the Union Cabinet approved an attractive recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces. The scheme is called Agnipath and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers. Agnipath allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years.

The Ministry of Defence, in its statement, said that the scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces. It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society.

As for the Armed Forces, it will enhance the youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of ‘Josh’ and ‘Jazba’ whilst at the same time bringing about a transformational shift towards a more tech-savvy Armed Forces – which is indeed the need of the hour.

It is envisaged that the average age profile of the Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by the implementation of this scheme.

Agnipath Scheme was recently launched by the government in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces. With the new military recruitment scheme facing a backlash by Opposition, the Centre has decided to bring a change in the upper age limit for recruiting Agniveers.

Granting a one-time waiver, the Centre on June 16, 2022, announced that the Agniveer upper age limit for recruitments via Agnipath Scheme has been extended to 23 years from 21 years. (ANI)

India reported over 12,000 fresh COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row by logging in 12,847 cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Friday.

After a gap of more than three months, India witnessed an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases as the country recorded as many as 12,213 fresh COVID-19 infections on Thursday.
On February 26 this year, India recorded 11,499 COVID-19 cases. On Wednesday, India had already reported 8,641 fresh cases of the virus.

With these figures, the country’s COVID-19 tally today rose to 4,32,70,577. India’s active COVID-19 caseload currently stands at 63,063, which accounts for 0.15 per cent of the total cases.

The top five states that registered the maximum number of fresh COVID-19 cases are Maharashtra with 4,255 cases, followed by Kerala with 3,419 cases, Delhi with 1,323 cases, Karnataka with 833 cases and Haryana with 625 cases.

A total of 81.37 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases have been reported from these five states, with Maharashtra alone responsible for 33.12 per cent of the new cases.

With 14 new COVID-related fatalities on Friday, the country’s total number of deaths rose to 5,24,817.

The government data today informed that as many as 7,985 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours thereby increasing the total recoveries to 4,26,82,697. The recovery rate currently stands at 98.64 per cent.

Of the 5,19,903 COVID-19 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, a daily positivity rate of 2.47 per cent was observed.

On the COVID-19 vaccination front, 195.84 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under a nationwide vaccination drive.

Amid the recent surge reported in COVID-19 cases across the country, the Health Ministry of India on June 9 urged States and Union Territories to not lower their guards and strictly maintain the COVID appropriate behaviour. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote a letter to States/UTs and directed them to ramp up RT-PCR testing, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID-19 protocols and take timely pre-emptive actions. Bhushan also advised the government to follow a ‘five-fold Strategy’. (ANI)

The Hyderabad Police on Thursday booked Congress leader and former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury and 200 others for gathering “unlawfully” to conduct a protest near V.V. Statue in Khairthabad of Telangana.

The Congress had given a “Chalo Raj Bhavan” call and Telangana Congress held a massive protest here today over the ED investigating Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. Several Congress workers and leaders were detained by the police, and in an attempt to avoid detention Chowdhury was seen engaging in a heated argument with a policeman as she held his collar, earlier in the day.

On the complaint of the “assaulted” Sub-Inspector (SI) S. Upender Babu of PS Panjagutta, the police have registered the cases against Renuka Chowdhury and others under sections 143, 145, 147, r/w 149, 152, 153, 353, 506 of the Indian Penal Code.

Notably, with the latest registered case, as many as three cases have been registered against the former Union Minister.

In the complaint, the SI stated, “At about 1100 hours under the leadership of A.Revanth Reddy, MP and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Anil Kumar Yadav, Congress Youth president MLA Jagga Reddy, MLA M. Batti Vikramarka, MLA D.Sridhar Babu, Ex-MP Mallu Ravi, TPCC Mahila President Sunitha Rao and around 200 others were unlawfully assembled near V.V.Statue in Khairthabad. The officers who were present on ‘bandobast’ at V.V.Statue gave orders for dispersing as it was unlawful assembly gathered without any prior permission from the concerned authorities. But the Congress leaders and cadre did not pay heed to the orders and continued to stay there and when the call was given by Congress’ Revanth Reddy, the gathering became violent and started pelting stones and breaking the window panes of the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses and also deflated the tyres of the RTC buses. They also set fire to one motorcycle on the X roads. All the pickets posted were alerted to be vigilant and not to allow any congress leaders or cadre towards Raj Bhawan and to take the leaders and cadre into preventive custody so as to prevent them from causing further damage to any public property.”

He further said that at about 01.15 PM, he observed Chowdhury stopping her car near the Metro Residency building at Khairthabad and getting down along with five other woman congress workers.

“I immediately alerted all the men (police officials) especially woman constables to be alert and as soon as Chowdhury moved towards Raj Bhawan, we pulled the barricades across the road and stood guard to prevent her from going towards Raj Bhawan. As she approached near the barricade I told her to disperse as there is no permission to go towards Raj Bhawan. Immediately she became angry and started threatening us to make way. And as per the instructions of senior officers, the woman force was ordered to take her into custody and they stood around them. While the woman police constables (PCs) were taking Chowdhury into custody by taking her to the vehicle, she started resisting and rushed towards me by pushing the woman PCs, she assaulted me and held my collar and started abusing…,” he said.

Following the incident, Chowdhury along with woman congress workers was immediately taken into custody and was shifted from that place.

The case is being investigated.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Chowdhury clarified the incident by saying, “I know how to respect the uniform, my intention is not to humiliate the police…They were pushing me, I have a problem with my leg. I was losing my balance so I fell on him like that. I don’t know that young man, ofcourse I’ll apologise to that man. But I expect Police to apologise to me for manhandling us. Why were there so many men Police around us?” (ANI)

As protests broke out against the newly launched Agnipath recruitment scheme, government officials on Thursday brought out a fact sheet to clarify myths being spread about the programme.

Government officials denied that opportunities for youth will decrease as a result of Agnipath. In fact, they said the opportunities for youth to serve in the armed forces will rather increase.
“In the coming years, recruitment of Agniveers will be around triple of the current recruitment in armed forces,” the government officials said.

Another myth is that Agniveers will have an insecure future. Officials said those wishing to be entrepreneurs will get a financial package and bank loan scheme.

The other options that they can go for include further studies, for which, the government said the students will be given 12 class equivalent certificates and a bridging course for further studies.

“For those wishing to obtain jobs- they will be given priority in CAPFs and State Police. Several avenues are also being opened up for them in other sectors,” said the government officials.

As far as the myth regarding the regimental bonding getting affected is concerned, the officials said that there is no change being done in the regimental system.

“In fact, it will be further accentuated because the best of Agniveers will be selected, further boosting cohesiveness of the unit,” said the officials.

Refuting the claims of the scheme harming the effectiveness of the Armed Forces, governmnet officials said that the system is already been tested in most of the countries where such a “short term enlistment system exists”, and hence it is “considered best practice for a youthful and agile army”.

“The numbers of Agniveers to be recruited in the first year would only make up 3 per cent of the armed forces. Additionally, the performance of the Agniveers will be tested before re-induction in the army after four years. Hence Army will get tested and tried personnel for supervisory ranks,” the officials said.

Showing faith in the youth of the country as against the myth that the “21-year-olds are immature and unreliable for the army”, the officials stated that most armies across the world depend upon their youths, while also adding clarifying that “at no point of time will there be more youngsters than experienced people”.

“The present scheme will only bring about a right mix of 50 per cent -50 per cent, slowly in a very long run, of youngsters and experienced supervisory ranks,” the government officials stated.

They further rejected the possibility of the Agniveers proving to be a “danger to society and joining terrorist camps, and said that such a myth is an “insult to the ethos and values of the Indian armed forces” and the affirmed that the “youngsters who have worn the uniform for four years will remain committed to the country for rest of their lives”.

“Even now thousands retire from armed forces retire with skills etc. but there have not been any instances of them joining anti-national forces,” the officials clarified.

As far as the myth and allegation that former armed forces officials were not consulted while constituting the Agnipath scheme, government officials said that extensive consultations with serving armed forces officers for the last two years were made.

“The proposal has been framed by the Department of Military Officers staffed by Military officers. The department itself is a creation of this government. Many former officers have recognized the advantages of the scheme and welcomed it,” the officials said.

Notably, several aspirants for the armed forces are unhappy with the changes introduced under the new recruitment scheme for the Indian Army, particularly the length of service, no pension provisions for those released early, and the 17.5 to 21-year age restriction that now makes many of them ineligible.

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Agnipath recruitment scheme which provides an opportunity for Indian youth to serve in the regular cadre of the Armed Forces for a period of four years.

Agnipath scheme aims to make the Army a future-ready fighting force capable of meeting multiple challenges across the full spectrum of conflict, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Tuesday.

But some army aspirants are unhappy with the Ministry of Defence’s new scheme for recruitment of youth into the armed forces. (ANI)

Over 21 lakhs devotees have reached the Char Dham Yatra since the pilgrimage began on May 3 this year, informed the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee on Thursday.

According to the Temple Committee, there is an influx of devotees in the Char Dham Yatra. A total of 21,21,392 (twenty-one lakh twenty-one thousand three hundred ninety-two) pilgrims have reached Char Dham in Uttarakhand so far.

The journey in all four Dhams is smooth and the weather is normal. There was light rain in Badrinath, the weather was normal in Kedarnath.

As per the data received, 7,39,752 pilgrims have reached the Badrinath Dham from May 8 to June 16 evening. Meanwhile, 7,14,766 pilgrims have reached the Kedarnath Dham.

A total of 3,78,539 pilgrims have reached Gangotri Dham from May 3 to till today and 2,88,335 pilgrims have reached Yamunotri Dham.

The number of pilgrims who reached Gangotri-Yamunotri is 6,66,874.

Meanwhile, a total of 91 pilgrims have lost their lives during the course of the Char Dam Yatra in Uttarakhand till May 27.

The Uttarakhand government, on May 11, announced its decision to increase the number of pilgrims by 1,000 each to Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.

The doors of the Gangotri-Yamunotri Dham were opened on May 3, whereas the portals of Kedarnath and Badrinath were opened on May 6 and May 8, respectively. (ANI)

People on Thursday hit the streets in Haryana’s Palwal against the Agnipath scheme for recruitment of youths to defence services. Following this, the Police personnel deployed at the DC residence in Palwal resorted to aerial firing to warn protesters who were pelting stones at the residence.

Several police vehicles were torched, several roadways buses were damaged in stone-pelting and the National Highway 19 was also blocked. The Police used tear gas shells and fired in the air to control the mob.

Speaking to ANI, Palwal Duty Magistrate said, “Some police personnel have been injured in the incident. 3 to 4 vehicles were torched by protestors. Till now, the protestors have not been identified.”

Amid the protest, local authorities suspended Internet and SMS services for some time. It was withdrawn later. To keep the situation under control, Section 144 has been imposed in Palwal.

“The directions issued regarding suspension of Mobile Internet and Bulk SMS Services vide this earlier Order Endst. No. 3370-83/M.B., dated: 16.06.2022 are hereby withdrawn with immediate effect. In this regard, the appropriate/competent Authority is being requested to issue necessary directions. The other directions issued under Section-144 of CrPC, 1973 viz. prohibition on assembly of 5 or more persons, unlawful activities such as blocking of roads, passages, Railway Tracks, Water Channels, Power I-louses etc., however, shall remain in force till further orders,” said District Magistrate of Palwal.

Gurugram Traffic Police in its advisory said: “Due to a local protest, traffic is diverted at Bilaspur chowk (NH-48). All commuters using this route have been requested to take alternate routes.” (ANI)

Due to Pakistan’s inability to make payments to the Chinese power supplies, the country lies in the abyss of electricity outages which is disrupting life and business amid this unbearable heatwave.

They have shut down multiple plants because the Pakistani government has failed to pay dues to the tune of 300 billion rupees (USD 1.5 billion).

Ahmed Naeem Salik, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, said that the current power generation capacity in Pakistan is 41,000 megawatts, while consumption is around 28,000 MW.

“We have 13,000 MW of extra electricity capacity, but still there is a lot of load shedding,” he said, using industry lingo for supply interruptions. This, he said, “is mainly because we have to pay the loans [to Chinese companies] that we are unable to pay, and hence [Chinese] have stopped power production.”

Sharing his grievances on the ongoing unbearable heat wave amid the power outages, Waheed Ahmed, a taxi driver in Rawalpindi, said that the power goes out for 8 hours a day.

Another Pakistani, Mumtaz Baloch, who is a government employee, said the situation in the rural area of the southwestern province of Balochistan is even worse. Baloch said that the electricity there comes just six hours per day, as per Nikkei Asia.

“We are used to living without government-supplied electricity as our forefathers did in ancient times,” she said.

Speaking with Nikkie Asia, Umar Nadeem, the head of the advisory at Islamabad consulting company Tabadlab drew a relation between the power outages and the subsequent economic fallout.

He said that the power cuts will have a direct impact on economic activity and it will hit the lower-income citizens hardest, as they feel the pressure of 13 pc plus inflation. “Disruptions in electricity supply and a corresponding drop in income levels will make coping with the rising costs even more difficult,” he said. (ANI)

Mother Dairy has decided to cut edible oil prices by up to Rs 15 per litre across variants, a company’s spokesperson said on Thursday.

“The maximum retail prices (MRP) of Dhara edible oils are being reduced by up to Rs 15 per litre across variants,” Mother Dairy Spokesperson said.

“This reduction is largely being done for oils majorly consumed in our countries such as Mustard Oil, Soyabean Oil and Sunflower Oil, on account of recent government-led initiatives, reduced impact of international markets and ease in availability of sunflower oil including improved domestic sunflower crop,” the Spokesperson said.

Dhara edible oil variants with the new MRP will reach the market by next week, the company said.

One litre poly pack of Dhara mustard oil which is currently priced at Rs 208 will have a reduced price of Rs 193.

The price of Dhara refined sunflower oil (1 litre Poly Pack) will be reduced to Rs 220 from the current MRP of Rs 235.

The price of Dhara refined soyabean oil (1 litre Poly Pack) will be revised downward at Rs 194 from the current MRP of Rs 209. (ANI)