New Delhi, March 11 Hundreds of retired Army personnel from the All India Congress Committee's Ex-Servicemen Department gathered at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday to protest against what they alleged was the poor implementation of a healthcare scheme and the Agnipath recruitment model.
Representatives from several states, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra, attended the protest and demanded reforms in the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), the withdrawal of taxes on disability pensions, and the scrapping of the Agnipath Scheme.
Protesters alleged irregularities in the implementation of ECHS and said the scheme was failing to provide quality medical care to veterans and their families.
"My father recently underwent eye surgery at a private hospital in Noida last December. The hospital authorities told us that the government-approved amount under ECHS was around Rs 5,000, while a good-quality lens cost Rs 18,000. If we wanted a better lens, we had to pay Rs 13,000 ourselves," said Mahavir Singh, who retired from the Army after over three decades of service.
"This facility is not free. A soldier deposits around Rs 50,000 or more, depending on rank, after retirement. Yet hospitals say government payments are delayed by one or two years because budgets are cut," he alleged.
He also criticised the Agnipath scheme, saying that earlier, a soldier took nearly a decade to train and gain experience. He alleged that the model has created divisions within the forces and has diluted long-term welfare benefits traditionally available to soldiers.
"Now, recruits are hired only for four years. A regular soldier and an Agniveer are not the same. When they know that long-term benefits may not come, it affects morale and creates differences within the forces," Singh said.
The Agnipath scheme, introduced by the Centre in 2022, allows the armed forces to recruit soldiers known as 'Agniveers' on a short-term basis for four years.
Meanwhile, nearly 200 veterans from Punjab travelled to the national capital to participate in the protest, a member of the Congress Ex-Servicemen Committee of Punjab said.
