Northern Army Commander in Leh on 4-day visit

Leh (Ladakh) [India], June 20 (ANI): Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi on Monday reached Leh on a four-day visit to the world's highest battlefield, to review training, operational preparedness, and induction of modern weapon systems, equipment, and logistics assets under Make in India initiative.
In a tweet today by the Northern Command today, it read, "Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi #ArmyCdrNC arrived at #Leh on a four-day visit to review operational preparedness, training, progress of induction of modern weapon systems, equipment and logistics assets. #Atmanirbharta #AtmaNirbharBharat #AtmaNirbhartaSeShakti"
This visit comes a day after the top military leadership of the country stressed that the main motive behind implementing the Agnipath scheme was to bring in more youth into the Armed forces.
Lieutenant General Anil Puri, Additional Secretary, Department of Military Affairs speaking on the Agnipath scheme, while addressing a press conference, said, "This reform was long pending."
Lt General Puri said, "The announcements regarding the reservations for 'Agniveers announced by the different ministries and departments were pre-planned and not in reaction to the arson that happened after the Agnipath scheme announcement."
He said Agniveers will get compensation for one crore rupees if he sacrifices his life in service of the nation. Lt General Puri said, "The 'Agniveers would get the same allowance in areas like Siachen and other areas which are applicable to the regular soldiers serving at present."
He said, "In next 4-5 years, intake of soldiers will be 50,000-60,000 and will increase to 90,000 - 1 lakh subsequently." He said the process to recruit 46,000 Agniveers started to analyse the scheme and to build up infrastructure capacity.
Air Marshal Suraj Jha, Air Officer Personnel said IAF will begin Recruitment under Agniveers under Agnipath Scheme from June 24 onwards. Air Marshal Jha said the first batch would be enrolled by December and training would commence by December 30.
Earlier, Northern Army Commander, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, AVSM arrived in Srinagar for his three-day visit to Kashmir from June 15 to 17. He visited forward posts on the Line of Control and the hinterland to review the overall security situation in the Kashmir Valley.
On the first day of his J-K visit, the Army Commander addressed the media on the contours of the reformative Agnipath Scheme of the Government. He highlighted the importance of the scheme and briefed the media on various facets of the scheme. He added that this will reform the human resource management system of not only the Indian Army but also of the Northern Command and will have a positive impact on operational preparedness as well. (ANI)