Fact Check: Govt exposes ‘Fake’ letter by defence ministry being circulated on Agnipath scheme

The Press Information Bureau on Monday flagged a letter that was being circulated as being issued by the Ministry of Defence as “fake”. The hoax letter claimed that “ORs attested after 1 Jan 2019 & those not promoted to a substantive rank of Naik or equivalent on 1 July 2022 are to be kept under Agnipath Scheme.” The Press Information Bureau in a tweet said that the letter was "fake" and was that "Defence Ministry has not issued this letter." 

Claim: ORs attested after 1 Jan 2019 & those not promoted to a substantive rank of Naik or equivalent on 1 July 2022 are to be kept under #AgnipathScheme#PIBFactCheck

▶️This letter is #Fake

▶️@DefenceMinIndia has not issued this letter pic.twitter.com/79SEUU1hHv

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 20, 2022

Meanwhile on Monday, recruitment rally notification was issued by the Army which stated that “registration will be opened will be opened from July 2022 onwards by respective AROs for Agniveer General Duty, Agniveer Technical, Agniveer Technical (Aviation/Ammunition) Examiner, Agniveer Clerk/Store Keeper Technical, Agniveer Tradesman 10th pass and Agniveer Tradesman 8th pass.”  The protests against the government's army recruitment scheme 'Agnipath' continued on Monday. Verious state government tightened the security in veiw of the 'Bharat Bandh' call given by the armed forces aspirants.

Massive demonstrations erupted last week after the Union government announced the contentious Agnipath scheme to recruit youth to serve in the three services of the Armed Forces. Taking objections over some of its conditions, the army aspirants have been agitating in 11 states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Assam.The row snowballed as demonstrations turned violent in some states. Protesters set trains on fire, vanadalised public and police vehicles, injuirng security personnel. They are demanding a roll back of the scheme -- a demand denied by the Centre.