Agnipath a fraud on youths: Malik

NEW DELHI, June 26: Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday termed the Agnipath scheme as a ‘fraud’ with the hopes of future jawans and said those retiring without a pension after serving the armed forces for four years would hardly attract any marriage proposal.
Malik told reporters at Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh that he had urged the government to reconsider the new scheme under which youths will be recruited as soldiers on a contractual basis.
“Future jawans will train for six months, and they will have six months of leave. After three years of job, when they return to their homes, they will hardly get any marriage proposal,” Malik said.
Malik, who hails from Baghpat, had come to Khekra village here to pay condolences to the family of his friend Gaje Singh Dhama who had died recently.
Asked if he should have quit as governor before raising these political issue, Malik quipped, “Had I got into the chakkar (trap) of advisors like you, I would not have been able to reach this place. I will leave the post in a minute, if the person who has made me (a governor) asks me to do so.”
To a question on his post-retirement plans, he said he has no intention to enter active politics again or contest
polls. “I will struggle for farmers and jawans wherever needed.”
The former Jammu and Kashmir governor said he will write a book on the border state of Kashmir after he demits office.
Asked if his attacks on the government would sharpen after he retires, Malik said, “It is not about the government. The issues I raise, if those are accepted, then it will be in favour of the government.”