Patna: A purported video of youth setting fire to the bogies of a train in Bihar during the recent protests against the Centre's Agnipath scheme has gone viral. In the 30-odd second video reportedly taken inside the Vikramshila Express at a railway station in the Lakhisarai district, two youth, one wearing a T-shirt and a backpack are seen setting the coaches on fire by lighting a folded cardboard placed beneath the back cushion on the seats.
Pertinently, seven AC bogies were set ablaze while four general bogies were also set ablaze after protests against the Agnipath scheme turned violent in Bihar on June 17. Six shops at a railway station were also dismantled and the goods were looted by the protesters. The GRP and Railway Police personnel were accused of having reached very late to the spot.
The protesting youth had also set ablaze the Janseva Express parked at Lakhisarai Outer, in which a total of four general coaches and one AC bogie were burnt. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh introduced the Agnipath scheme on June 14 for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, largely on a short-term contractual basis to cut the ballooning salary and pensions bill.
Singh announced the new scheme at a media briefing, shortly after the Cabinet Committee on Security approved it. "The Agnipath recruitment scheme is a transformative initiative that will provide a youthful profile to the armed forces," he said. With questions being raised on the future of Agnipath recruits after their four-year service in the armed forces, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on June 15 announced that they would get preference for appointment in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Assam Rifles. The government also raised the lower age limit for applying under the scheme to 23 in a one-time relaxation for the year 2022.
