The Narendra Modi government has amended the Defence Services Regulations to include the rank of Agniveer as it prepares to induct men and women into the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force under the Agnipath scheme launched earlier this year, News18 has learnt.
The Defence Services Regulations for the three services define the roles and responsibilities of all armed forces personnel and list out their ranks, appointments and order of precedence.
Defence sources told News18 that last month, the regulations were amended to add the rank of Agniveer along with the existing ranks of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs), warrant officers (WOs), Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs), Sowars, Gunners, Drivers, Sappers, Sepoys and Riflemen and their equivalents in the Navy and the IAF.
As per the amended regulations, the rank of Agniveer will be the last in the order of precedence — after JCOs, WOs, NCOs, Sepoys, Riflemen and their equivalents in the other two defence services.
“With this amendment, the new rank of Agniveer has been formalised in the defence services,” a defence source told News18.
Under the government’s Agnipath scheme, 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited into the armed forces — including 40,000 for the Army and 3,000 each for the Navy and IAF. The three services have received 50 lakh applications for the 46,000 positions. Post exiting the services after four years, up to 25 per cent of them can apply voluntarily to join the services on a regular basis, depending on merit and organisational requirements.
The Army, which will be the biggest recruiter of the three services, has already conducted 50 of the 96 rallies planned to recruit Agniveers, and five are ongoing at present. One common entrance examination was held earlier this month and the other is scheduled in November.
There will be 11 rallies to recruit women candidates for 100 vacancies in the Army’s Corps of Military Police (CMP), for which 2.5 lakh women had registered, as per latest data available with the Army. Of the total, 10 per cent of the Agniveers recruited into the IAF will be women and 20 per cent of Naval Agniveers will be women.
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