KOLKATA: Expressing concerns, Trinamool Congress (TMC) will demand suspension of the Agnipath Scheme at Parliament Advisory Committee for Defence scheduled on July 8.
Sources in TMC told The New Indian that they are not alone as opposition parties will close ranks to strongly oppose the scheme in the meeting.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy has already written a letter to Union defence minister Rajnath Singh opposing Agnipath. Roy said that in the meeting of the advisory committee TMC would oppose the matter and seek a detailed explanation. Singh is the chairman of the committee.
Sources revealed that Sudip Banerjee, TMC MP and floor leader of the party in Lok Sabha, will table the partyโs views to Singh at the meeting. Demands will also be made to suspend the scheme.
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Earlier in a press conference held in New Delhi, Banerjee said, โWe will definitely take up the matter in the Defence Advisory Committee meeting.โ
โThe scheme was neither debated in the parliament nor in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence prior to its direct induction on June 15,โ sources said.
One of the important questions that have been raised across the country is why the countryโs youth will be recruited into the army for only four years, the source said.
The uproar against the central governmentโs Agnipath Scheme stirred the entire nation which escalated into a security scare and caused damage to public property worth crores of rupees.
The governmentโs effort to tag the scheme as a โtransformativeโ approach which will see the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and Air Force failed to break the ice with the protestors.
The Agnipath recruitment scheme allows Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years where they will be called Agniveers.
The scheduled meeting to be held in the Parliament Annexe building before the monsoon session will take up the matter of Agniveers that witnessed spontaneous protests across states.
The monsoon session of the Parliament will start on July 18. It is expected that the opposition will vehemently protest against the Agnipath scheme during the meeting.
