7.5 lakh applications received under Agnipath show youth's keenness to join armed forces: IAF Chief
New Delhi, July 17: At a time when Opposition parties are demanding withdrawal of the Agnipath recruitment scheme, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari stated that his force has received over 7.5 lakh applications under the new plan, showcasing the youth's "keenness" to join the armed forces.
On Sunday, the IAF chief further addressed the "challenge" of finishing the selection process on time which the forces, during the launch of the scheme, had set December as the deadline.
Notably, the opposition expressed reservations over the recently introduced Agnipath army recruitment scheme and demanded its withdrawal or parliamentary scrutiny during a meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday.
"We've received 7.5 lakh applications for it. This shows the keenness of the youth to join the armed forces and the Air Force in particular. The big challenge lies in finishing the selection process on time to start training as we had planned in December," the IAF chief said.
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Notably, the Indian Air Force has received the highest number of applications for recruitment into the Force surpassing the previous best recruitment cycle numbers. The air force commenced the registration process on June 24, 10 days after the Agnipath scheme was launched by the Centre.
The highest number of applications in any recruitment cycle was 6,31,528 which was overtaken this year under the Agnipath scheme which attracted 7,49,899 applications, the IAF said.
"The online registration process conducted by #IAF towards #AgnipathRecruitmentScheme has been completed. Compared to 6,31,528 applications in the past, which was the highest in any recruitment cycle, this time 7,49,899 applications have been received," IAF said on Twitter earlier this month.
Talking about Air Force Day, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said: "Air Force Day Parade this year will be held in Chandigarh. PM's vision was to take major events out of Delhi. Keeping with PM's vision and our idea of showing IAF's prowess to the youth of the nation we decided to shift the venue of the Parade to a new location every year, this year we have selected Chandigarh."
"We take pride in showing the capabilities of the Air Force through such displays," he added.
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-PTC News
