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Journalism of Courage
The first batches of Agniveer recruits, who were recruited last year, passed out from Bombay Sappers of the Indian Army and Air Force Station after completing their training courses at these key defence establishments in Pune as part of Agnipath scheme.
In June last year, the Ministry of Defence had announced its new Agnipath initiative for recruitment of soldiers across the three services. Under this defence recruitment reform, which was cleared by the cabinet committee on security, soldiers are being recruited annually.
While the initial appointment is for four years, around 25 per cent of each batch of Agniveers will be enrolled in the regular cadre of the armed forces, and will be required to serve an engagement period of 15 years.
The recruits from the pioneer batch passed out on Saturday from The Bombay Sappers with parade by the new soldiers who are set to join their respective units across the country. A large number of them will be posted to combat engineer units located in field areas.
They underwent 31 weeks of gruelling, high intensity training, comprising physical fitness, combat engineering training and basic trade training. Agniveer Vaibhav Gajanan Kuyte was awarded the Commandant’s Gold Medal for finishing first in the overall order of merit. Agniveer Jagjit Singh and Agniveer Gurmukh Singh bagged the Commandant’s Silver and Bronze Medals, while Agniveer Amit Prajapati was adjudged the best in the drill performance and commanded the parade.
