The Haryana government on Sunday announced a 10% increase in reservations for Agniveers in state police recruitment, The Indian Express reported.

This raises the Agniveer quota for posts in the police to 20%.

Agniveers are enlisted in the armed forces under the Agnipath short-term recruitment scheme. Under the scheme, citizens aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 years are eligible to apply for a four-year term in the military with a provision that 25% of them will be retained for 15 more years.

Those recruited under this scheme are called Agniveers.

In July, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana introduced a 10% quota for Agniveers in the recruitment of constables and forest guards, along with additional quotas for other positions.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that Haryana was the first state to secure the future of Agniveers by reserving jobs for them after their military service period concluded, The Indian Express reported.

Saini added that a separate portal would be created for Agniveers to register for the jobs.

Agniveers who want to run their own business will be provided loans at affordable rates, he said, adding that those who wanted to serve as private security personnel would be given priority in getting gun licences.

An annual subsidy of Rs 60,000 will be provided to industries that employ Agniveers on a monthly salary of more than Rs 30,000, NDTV quoted the state government as saying in a statement.

In 2022-’23, more than 2,220 Agniveers were recruited from Haryana, the state government said. This number increased to 2,893 in 2023-’24. The first batch of Agniveers would complete their service period in 2026.

The introduction of the Agnipath scheme had triggered protests across several states as aspirants demanded permanent recruitment with pension benefits.

Agniveers are not entitled to pension and emoluments on the completion of the four years of service and are instead offered a lump-sum package.

In July, eight other BJP-ruled states – Gujarat, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh – announced reservations and preferential hiring for Agniveers in government jobs, the police and other security forces.