In a signficant move, the Union Home Ministry has announced a 10 per cent reservation for ex-Agniveers in vacancies within the Border Security Force (BSF) as well as relaxed the upper age-limit norms depending on whether they are part of the first batch or subsequent batches, according to its recent Gazette notification issued under the relevant sections of the Border Security Force Act, 1968.
The notification dated March 6 stated that the upper age-limit shall be relaxed by upto five years for the candidates of the first batch of ex-Agniveers whereas for those belonging to the subsequent batches, the upper age-limit has been relaxed by three years.
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Not only this, former Agniveers will also be exempted from "Physical Efficiency Test", the notification said.
The move comes after the scheme that provides for recruitment of youths aged between 17-and-a-half years and 21 years in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis, attracted criticism.
After the completion of the four-year tenure, 25 per cent of the recruits from each batch will be offered regular service. There have been protests by job aspiring youths against this provision of the scheme.
Subsequently, the Union Home Ministry had announced that 10 per cent vacancies for recruitment in the CAPFs or the paramilitary forces will be reserved for the Agniveers. Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in the Rajya Sabha that reservation given will be horizontal which will not affect the 50 per cent ceiling kept by the Supreme Court.
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(With inputs from PTI)
