NEW DELHI: Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), requested the 'immediate' withdrawal of the Central government's Agnipath recruiting scheme on Friday.

The Army recruitment should be scrapped for the sake of the country's security and sovereignty, and permanent soldiers should be recruited as usual, which has not happened in the past two years, Yechury said in a press briefing. 

"With contract-based personnel, a professional army cannot flourish. The programme only provides employment for four years. These soldiers are tasked with defending our security and sovereignty, and they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to do so. Is this how they should be treated?"  Yechury remarked.

"No guarantees of long-term employment? After four years, you haven't found work? Even if Agniveers are trained, they will be placed back into the workforce without a job. What will they do now?" Yechury added.

Following protests in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the government's new recruitment scheme Agnipath has now expanded to Hyderabad, with protestors setting at least seven trains on fire and ransacking the whole railway station premises on Friday morning.

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