Bharat Bandh: Huge jams on Delhi-Gurugram expressway as cops check vehicles

New Delhi, Jun 20: Heavy traffic jams were reported at the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway on Monday following a call for Bharat Bandh against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme.

Police were seen checking vehicles near the Sarhaul border as organisations demanded the roll back of the scheme.

Opposition parties including the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party will stage protests against the scheme at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. In Faridabad and Noida prohibitory orders are in place which prevents the assembly of four or more persons.

Initially, under the 'Agnipath' scheme, youths aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 were to be recruited in the Army, Navy and the Air Force, largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis.

Subsequently, the Centre raised the upper age limit for recruitment under the scheme to 23 years for 2022 as protests against it intensified.

Thereafter, the Central government also announced several incentives including reserving 10 per cent vacancies in its paramilitary and the Defence Ministry for Agnipath retirees and said it would look into any grievance about the new military recruitment scheme "with an open mind'.

Those recruited under the scheme would be known as 'Agniveers'.

After the completion of the four-year tenure, 25 per cent of the recruits from each batch would be offered regular service.

The announcement of the new scheme came in the backdrop of recruitment into the military remaining stalled for over two years.

The Army recruits 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers annually. However, the recruitment could not take place for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.