Are Punjab, Haryana, Himachal governments ready for returning Agniveers

To counter this, various state governments – primarily those run by the BJP – began announcing ‘Agniveer quotas’. And now it is time to see if they work.

For Haryana’s Agniveers (and Punjab and Himachal)

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini‘s BJP government has come out with a detailed policy on this topic. His counterparts in Punjab – the Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann and the Congress’ Sukhvinder Sukhu – have offered no plan, yet.

In May Mann did approve extending reservation benefits to Agniveers, but his administration has not made the details public, so far. There is, of course, time on the clock, but with the Punjab election due early next year, it is running out fast.

The AAP government set up a ‘high-powered committee’ to ‘ finalise modalities and framework (of said implementation) in a time-bound manner. Senior police and government officials were named to the panel set up three months ago.

Punjab’s Agniveers, by numbers

Data accessed by The Indian Express says 2,242 Agniveers were recruited from Punjab. The rules state that 75 per cent of them – 1,818 – will be released.

The remaining will expect ‘permanent enrolment’ in their chosen service.

Of those released, an estimated 40 per cent will likely be absorbed into central government schemes. That leaves around 1,100 for the Punjab government to deal with, which is what the aforementioned panel is supposed to work out.

It is unclear if a report has been submitted to the Mann administration.

The Express reached out to officers within but received no response.

We did, however, contact Brigadier (retd) BS Dhillon, Sainik Welfare (Punjab), who said he believed the report has, in fact, been submitted.

He did not, however, claim any knowledge of what it may contain.

The Express’ sources have suggested the state police force may not induct many of the returning Agniveers, which has led to urgent behind-the-curtain talks.

Himachal Pradesh’s Agniveer problem

In neighbouring Himachal too there seems to be decision paralysis.

The Home Secretary, Amarjeet Singh, spoke of plans to reserve around 20 per cent of state government jobs but, like Punjab, no notification has been issued.

Singh indicated the Home Department – as the nodal agency – would need to work with other government departments to resolve this problem.

And Haryana?

Saini’s government seems to be the only one ‘ready’ for the Agniveers.

Reports indicate it has provided 20 per cent horizontal reservation to a set of government posts. This is in addition to horizontal reservation for certain Group-C and Group-B posts. The former will apply to posts in the Home and Prisons departments, as well as others like forests and mining.

And within the 20 per cent there are provisions for Deprived Scheduled Castes, Other Scheduled Castes, and the Economically Weaker Sections.

What is the Agniveer scheme?

Back in June 2022 the central government rolled out a scheme to recruit young men and women to the Army, Navy, and Air Force, for short-term roles.

The idea was to re-structure intake and retention. In simpler words, it was meant to reduce the financial burden on the armed forces, i.e., reduce money spent on salaries and maintain a younger age profile of soldiers. The latter was seen as critical given how technology has become indispensable to military tactics.

The idea also was that only 25 per cent of Agniveers would be retained past the four-year mark, which was what triggered protests. Since then there have been proposals to increase retention to 50 per cent, though this is not confirmed.