Firefighters' service extended by two years

The central government is set to make key changes in the Agnipath scheme being implemented in the Indian Defence Forces..! It will increase the service period of the Agniveers selected under this scheme, which started in 2022. It is planning to extend the current 4-year service period of Agniveers by another two years to a total of 6 years. Apart from extending the service period, a high-level decision has also been taken to increase the number of Agniveers to be continued in the three services. According to the current regulations, only 25 percent of those selected as Agniveers are taken into the permanent cadre after four years. However, the three services have proposed to increase this limit significantly.

Defense sources said that the official decision regarding this is likely to be announced by the 21st of this month. While the Army and the Air Force want to increase this limit from 25 to 50 percent, it is learned that the Navy has proposed to continue 70-75 Agniveers permanently due to the high need for technically skilled personnel. The tenure of the first batch of Navy fire fighters will end on November 21, the tenure of the first batch of Air Force fire fighters will end on December 21, and the tenure of the first batch of Army fire fighters will end on December 31. So, there is a possibility of clarity on these by now. In the first phase of four years, 24,400 fire fighters have joined the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Since the inception of this scheme, about 2,70,000 people have been appointed as fire fighters in the Army, 27,000 in the Air Force, and 21,000 in the Navy in these four years.