The final framework of the Agnipath scheme was created after consultations with all the stakeholders, Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande said on Thursday, reported The Hindu.

Under the Agnipath scheme, citizens between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 are recruited into the armed forces for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them for 15 more years.

The scheme, announced in June 2022, had triggered protests across several states as aspirants demanded permanent recruitment with pension benefits. Following the protests, the Centre extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment under the scheme for the first year.

Former Chief of the Army General Manoj Mukund Naravane’s memoir, which was released last month, said that the Central government’s decision to formulate the Agnipath scheme took the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy by surprise.

“It will be unfair for me to say anything on the comments by my predecessor,” Pande said on Thursday. “But I just wish to reiterate here that the final framework, structure of the Agnipath scheme came about after an iterative process, after consultations. It took into account whatever issues we had to put across.”

He said that there are few challenges in terms of training, most of which are at the tactical level, including tweaking of policies, limited training period and harmonising firing standards between Agniveers and regular soldiers, reported The Hindu.

“These are some of them, more in the realm of management issues, pay and allowances, which as we are moving forward, we are picking these issues up as we go along based on the feedback,” he added.

Naravane, who served as the 28th Army chief from December 31, 2019, to April 30, 2022, had said in his memoir titled Four Stars of Destiny that he had initially discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “tour of duty” scheme for inducting soldiers for short-term tenure only in the Army.

“Just as a limited number of SSC [Short Service Commission] officers are taken each year, likewise a limited number of jawans would be similarly enrolled and released after the completion of their ‘tour’ with the option of re-enlisting for another tour, if found to be fit,” wrote the former chief, describing his discussion with the prime minister.

Naravane wrote that the Prime Minister’s Office had formulated the scheme to not only state that the complete intake of the year will be short-service based, but that it would also apply to all three services.

“We in the Army were taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue,” he wrote.