Agniveer Martyr’s Family Calls Defence Minister’s Claim Of Rs 1 Crore Compensation ‘False”
A day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh defended the controversial Agnipath scheme, the family of Agniveer Ajay Singh wants the scheme scrapped. Ajay Singh had died in a landmine blast in the Nowshera sector on January 18.
On Monday, a row erupted between Singh and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on the Agnipath scheme. Gandhi criticised the scheme, pointing out that the government has ensured that there are two types of soldiers – those who receive pensions and those who do not.
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Countering the claim, the defence minister accused Gandhi of spreading misinformation in Parliament and claimed that the families of Agniveer martyrs receive Rs 1 crore as compensation.
A resident of Ramgarh Sardaran village in Ludhiana’s Payal, Agniveer Ajay Singh, had enrolled in the Indian Army under the scheme in February 2022. The family had met with Gandhi in May.
During the row in the Lok Sabha, the Congress leader remarked that the government doesn’t acknowledge those who died under the scheme as martyrs, and their families would not receive pensions or compensation.
The martyr’s father, Charanjit Singh, told the Times of India that his son had died in the line of duty, and the family received only Rs 48 lakh from his unit. He also added that the defence minister’s claim of Rs 1 crore compensation was false and that his son did not receive the status of an Agniveer martyr.
Supporting Gandhi’s remarks, the father of Ajay said that the Punjab government had given the family Rs 1 crore. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had visited their place and told the family that the state government had kept a government job reserved for their family member, he added. “My youngest daughter, Anjali Devi, is in final year of BA in Rara Sahib. She will get the job,” Singh told TOI.
Ajay’s sister, Baksho Devi, stated that the family received the money from the Army in June, but her late brother was yet to receive the status of a martyr.
Launched in 2022, the Agnipath scheme offers short-term induction of young personnel into the armed forces with the aim of alleviating the long-term financial burdens of pensions and other benefits. Those recruited under the scheme are called Agniveers. Under the existing provisions, families of Agniveers who die in the line of duty are not eligible for regular benefits like pensions.
