Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednes🔯d✨ay asked district authorities to provide full support to Agnipath candidates after the Army flagged "vacillating" support from the local administration.
The Indian Army has said that it will be forced to suspend the recruitment rallie💦s in the state, under the short-term Agnipath scheme, or shift them to neighbouring states.
The issue came to light after Major General Sharad Bikram Singh, the Army's zonal recruitment officer in♏ Jalandhar, wrote to Punjab Chief Secretary VK Janjua on the issue on September 8.
In the letter, he stated that support from the civil administra💮tion in the state was “vacillating with no clear-cut commitments”.
The zonal officer said that he would take up the mat♊ter with Army headquarters to either “hold in abeyance” all the recruitment r꧒allies under Agnipath in the state, or alternatively, conduct the rallies in neighbouring states.
Responding to the issue, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said, "All deputy commissioners were directed to provide complete support to Army authorities for recruitment of Agniveers in Punjab. Any laxity shall be viewed seriously. Every effort will be made to recruit a maximum number of candidates into army from the state."
