Agnipath protests: Agitators vandalise Punjab's Ludhiana railway station

Agitators protesting against the Centre's new Agnipath recruitment scheme for armed forces on Saturday vandalised Punjab's Ludhiana railway station.

The police said that CCTV footage is available and they are identifying the miscreants who attacked the railway station.

"Police immediately took action. Around 8-10 persons have been rounded up. Some people have called them and misused them. We have videos available and are identifying them," said RS Brar, Joint Commissioner of Police (CP) of Ludhiana.

Meanwhile, after the protests raged on in some parts of the country, the government has stepped up their efforts to appeal to the protestors not to protest and understand the new recruitment programme of the military.

In a bid to provide supportive measures to the Agniveers after their 4-year service ends in the Armed Forces, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday approved a proposal to reserve 10 per cent of the job vacancies in the Ministry of Defence for Agniveers meeting requisite eligibility criteria.

Soon after the launch of the scheme, the government also announced that it has decided to increase the upper age limit for the recruitment of Agniveers from 21 years to 23 years for the recruitment cycle of 2022.

Earlier today, the Home Ministry decided to reserve 10 per cent vacancies for recruitment in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles for Agniveers. Home Ministry has further announced that it will give three years of age relaxation to Agniveers beyond the prescribed upper age limit to recruitments in CAPFs and Assam Rifles. For the first batch of Agniveers, the age relaxation will be of 5 years.

Moreover, there are several state governments like Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka that have come out and announced various supportive measures for the Agniveers who would return to the civil life after their 4-year service in the Defence Forces.

Several state governments have announced that Agniveers, after serving the armed forces for 4 years, will be given preference in filling of vacancies in state police forces.

However, with the violence spreading in some parts of the country which included setting trains on fire, and stone-pelting, arrests were made. In Uttar Pradesh at least 250 people have been arrested and six FIRs lodged until Friday.

Owing to the violence, the train services of the East Coast Railway zone were also affected.

In states like Bihar, where trains were set on fire in some places, the state police is probing the role of the coaching institutes behind the violence.

The stone-pelting incident was also reported at the spot in which the police personnel also sustained injuries. Acting against the violence, the Andhra Pradesh Police on Saturday detained a man named Subba Rao who ran Army training centres in Palnadu district on the suspicion that he is the conspirator in Thursday's arson at Secunderabad Railway station in Telangana.